CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 
383 
But all the fads above enumerated were as 
nothing to the surprise which awaited us on the 
Barrier. I maintain that our arrangements for 
returning were quite adequate, and that no one in 
the- world would have expected the temperatures and 
surfaces which we encountered at this lime of the 
year . On the summit in Lat. 85 — 86 we had 
— 20°, — 30°. On the Barrier in Lai . 82, ten 
thousand feet lower, we had — 30° in the day , 
— 47 0 at night pretty regularly, with continuous 
head wind during our day marches. It is clear 
that these circumstances come on very suddenly, 
and our wreck is certainly due to this sudden 
advent of severe weather, which does not seem to 
have any satisfactory cause. I do not think 
human beings ever came through such a month 
as we have come through, and we should have got 
through in spite of the weather but for the sickening 
of a second companion , Captain Oates, and a 
shortage of fuel in our depots, for which / cannot 
account, and finally, but for the storm which has 
fallen on us within eleven miles of the depot at 
which we hoped to secure our final supplies. 
Surely misfortune could scarcely have exceeded 
this last blow. We arrived within eleven miles 
of our old One Ton Camp with fuel for one last 
meal and food for two days. Bor four days we 
have been unable to leave the tent, the gale howling 
about us. We are weak, writing is difficult, but 
for my own sake I do not regret this journey, 
which has shown that Englishmen can endure 
hardships, help one another, and meet death with 
as great a fortitude as ever in the past. We took 
risks ; we knew we took them. Things have come 
out against us, and therefore we have no cause for 
complaint, but boiv to 
the will of Providence, 
determined still to do 
our best to the last. 
But if we have been 
willing lo give our 
lives to this enter- 
prise, which is for 
the honour of our 
country , I appeal 
to our countrymen lo 
see that those who 
depend on us are 
properly cared for. 
Had we lived, I 
should have had a 
tale to tell of the 
hardihood, endurance, 
and courage of my 
companions w hi c h 
would have stirred 
the heart of every 
Englishman . These 
rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale, 
but surely, surely a great rich country like ours 
will see that those who are dependent on us are 
properly provided for. R. SCOTT , 
Atkinson set out on October 30th with a 
search-party in two divisions : himself with 
Cherry-Garrard and Demetri and the dog 
teams ; Wright with Nelson, Gran, Lashley, 
Groan, Williamson, Keohane, and Hooper, 
who took seven Indian mules, brought out 
on the second trip of the Terra Nova , 
for transport purposes. They were prepared 
to go six hundred miles to the head of the 
Beardmore Glacier, and carried three 
months’ provisions. Corner Camp, they 
found; had not been visited ; nor One Ton 
Camp : the stores were all in order and lay 
untouched. On November 12th the advance 
guard caught sight of the tent standing in the 
lonely plain ; and from the last diaries, with 
the note bidding the finder read them, they 
learned with what justice they could write for 
the last epitaph of these men the words of 
the poet : “ To seek, to strive, to find, and 
not to yield.” 
Over the bodies they spread the folds of 
the outer tent, then built over all a mighty 
cairn, surmounted with a simple cross. Then 
they marched another twenty miles south and 
searched for the body of Captain Oates ] but 
it was not to be found, and so to him also 
they erected a cairn, with the record that 
“ Hereabouts died 
a very gallant 
gentleman.” 
Last of all, the 
Terra Nova came 
on her final voyage 
to the South. The 
party embarked, 
leaving supplies 
at Cape Evans for 
any future ex- 
plorers; then 
sailed to Hut Point, 
and on the familiar 
height of Observa- 
tion Hill erected a 
large cross looking 
out across the vast 
spaces of the Bar- 
rier, where lay their 
captain smd his 
fellow-adventurers. 
CAPTAIN SCOTT’S TRIBUTE TO CAPTAIN 
OATES. 
Reproduced from the Journals by special permission of Lady Scott. 
THIS END. 
Vrtl. xlvi. — 49. 
