NOTES
[1] It was continued a night and a day.
[2] Captain Oates' nickname.
[3] A species of shrimp on which the seabirds feed.
[4] The party headed by Lieutenant Campbell, which, being unable to disembark on King Edward's Land, was ultimately taken by the Terra Nova to the north part of Victoria Land, and so came to be known as the Northern Party. The Western Party here mentioned includes all who had their base at Cape Evans: the depots to be laid were for the subsequent expedition to the Pole.
[5] The extreme S. point of the Island, a dozen miles farther, on one of whose minor headlands, Hut Point, stood the Discovery hut.
[6] Here were the meteorological instruments.
[7] Cape Evans, which lay on the S. side of the new hut.
[8] The Southern Road was the one feasible line of communication between the new station at C. Evans and the Discovery hut at Hut Point, for the rugged mountains and crevassed ice slopes of Ross Island forbade a passage by land. The 'road' afforded level going below the cliffs of the ice-foot, except where disturbed by the descending glacier, and there it was necessary to cross the body of the glacier itself. It consisted of the more enduring ice in the bays and the sea-ice along the coast, which only stayed fast for the season.
Thus it was of the utmost importance to get safely over the precarious part of the 'road' before the seasonal going-out of the sea-ice. To wait until all the ice should go out and enable the ship to sail to Hut Point would have meant long uncertainty and delay. As it happened, the Road broke up the day after the party had gone by.
[9] Viz. Atkinson and Crean, who were left at Safety Camp; E. Evans,
Forde and Keohane, who returned with the weaker ponies on Feb. 13;
Meares and Wilson with the dog teams; and Scott, Bowers, Oates,
Cherry-Garrard, and Lashly.
[10] The favorite nickname for Bowers.
[11] Professor T. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., F.R.S., of Sydney University, who was the geologist to Shackleton's party.
[12] This was done in order to measure on the next visit the results of wind and snow.
[13] Scott, Wilson, Meares and Cherry-Garrard now went back swiftly with the dog teams, to look after the return parties at Safety Camp. Having found all satisfactory, Scott left Wilson and Meares there with the dogs, and marched back with the rest to Corner Camp, taking more stores to the depot and hoping to meet Bowers rearguard party.
[14] The party had made a short cut where in going out with the ponies they had made an elbow, and so had passed within this 'danger line.'
[15] Bowers, Oates, and Gran, with the five ponies. The two days had after all brought them to Safety Camp.
[16] This was at a point on the Barrier, one-half mile from the edge, in a S.S.E. direction from Hut Point.
[17] I.e. by land, now that the sea ice was out.
[18] Because the seals would cease to come up.
[19] As a step towards 'getting these things clearer' in his mind two spare pages of the diary are filled with neat tables, showing the main classes into which rocks are divided, and their natural subdivisions—the sedimentary, according to mode of deposition, chemical, organic, or aqueous; the metamorphic, according to the kind of rock altered by heat; the igneous, according to their chemical composition.
[20] Viz, Simpson, Nelson, Day, Ponting, Lashly, Clissold, Hooper, Anton, and Demetri.
[21] See Chapter X.
[22] The white dogs.
[23] I.e. in relation to a sledging ration.
[24] Officially the ponies were named after the several schools which had subscribed for their purchase: but sailors are inveterate nicknamers, and the unofficial humour prevailed. See Appendix, Note 18.
[25] Captain Scott's judgment was not at fault.
[26] I.e. a crack which leaves the ice free to move with the movements of the sea beneath.
[27] This was the gale that tore away the roofing of their hut, and left them with only their sleeping-bags for shelter. See p. 365.
[28] Prof. T. Edgeworth David, of Sydney University, who accompanied Shackleton's expedition as geologist.
[29] See Vol. II., Dr. Simpson's Meteorological Report.
[30] This form of motor traction had been tested on several occasions; in 1908 at Lauteret in the Alps, with Dr. Charcot the Polar explorer: in 1909 and again 1910 in Norway. After each trial the sledges were brought back and improved.
[31] The Southern Barrier Depôt.
[32] Camp 31 received the name of Shambles Camp.
[33] While Day and Hooper, of the ex-motor party, had turned back on
November 24, and Meares and Demetri with the dogs ascended above the
Lower Glacier Depot before returning on December 11, the Southern
Party and its supports were organised successively as follows:
December 10, leaving Shambles Camp—
Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Oates and P.O. Evans.
Sledge 2. E. Evans, Atkinson, Wright, Lashly.
Sledge 3. Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Crean, Keohane.
December 21 at Upper Glacier Depôt—
Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Oates, P.O. Evans.
Sledge 2. E. Evans, Bowers, Crean, Lashly, while Atkinson,
Wright, Cherry-Garrard and Keohane returned.
January 4, 150 miles from the Pole—
Sledge 1. Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers, P.O. Evans;
while E. Evans, Crean, and Lashly returned.
[34] The Lower Glacier Depot.
[35] In the pocket journal, only one side of each page had been written on. Coming to the end of it, Scott reversed the book, and continued his entries on the empty backs of the pages.
[36] A unit of food means a week's supplies for four men.
[37] A number preceded by R. marks the camps on the return journey.
[38] Still over 150 miles away. They had marched 7 miles on the homeward track the first afternoon, 18 1/2 the second day.
[39] Three Degree Depôt.
[40] Left on December 31.
[41] The Upper Glacier Depôt, under Mount Darwin, where the first supporting party turned back.
[42] The result of concussion in the morning's fall.
[43] The Lower Glacier Depot.
[44] Sledges were left at the chief depôts to replace damaged ones.
[45] It will be remembered that he was already stricken with scurvy.
[46] For the last six days the dogs had been waiting at One Ton Camp under Cherry-Garrard and Demetri. The supporting party had come out as arranged on the chance of hurrying the Pole travellers back over the last stages of their journey in time to catch the ship. Scott had dated his probable return to Hut Point anywhere between mid-March and early April. Calculating from the speed of the other return parties, Dr. Atkinson looked for him to reach One Ton Camp between March 3 and 10. Here Cherry-Garrard met four days of blizzard; then there remained little more than enough dog food to bring the teams home. He could either push south one more march and back, at imminent risk of missing Scott on the way, or stay two days at the Camp where Scott was bound to come, if he came at all. His wise decision, his hardships and endurance Ove recounted by Dr. Atkinson in Vol. II., 'The Last Year at Cape Evans.'
[47] The 60th camp from the Pole.