Beloved over all;...
—Kipling.
On September 16th we entered Plymouth Sound and anchored in Cawsand Bay. As was fitting, the first man to join the ship was Mr. Rowett, who gave us the warmest of welcomes home. He was very interested in all I had to tell him, but was deeply touched when I spoke of our old “Boss” whom we had left “down there.”
So we returned, quietly, as was befitting. My task when the leadership fell on my shoulders was to “carry on.” This, with the aid of the men who gave me their unquestioning obedience and showed unswerving loyalty, I was able to do. It gave me great pleasure when Mr. Rowett, whose support and co-operation alone made the expedition possible, said, “Old man, you’ve done splendidly!”
We had made observations and brought back a mass of data gathered through long days of hardship and bitter toil, and I hope, when all is sorted and fully worked up, that our efforts may prove of value in helping to solve the great natural problems that still perplex us.
I have taken part in five expeditions to the Antarctic, and though I think that my work there is done, I shall never cease to feel glad that it has fallen to my lot to pioneer and guide the groping fingers of Knowledge on the white edges of the world.
APPENDIX 1
GEOLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS, by G. Vibert Douglas, M.C., M.Sc., Geologist to the Expedition.
As planned by the late Sir Ernest H. Shackleton the voyage of the Quest to Southern Regions was intended to explore the coast from Enderby Land westwards to Coats Land, a length of approximately 2,500 miles. On the routes to and from this main objective it was his intention to call at many seldom-visited islands in the Atlantic, Southern, Indian and Pacific Oceans.
A part of the second objective was attained, and the reader who desires to learn of the detailed geological results of the expedition is asked to consult the full scientific report which is now being prepared, and which, by the courtesy of the authorities of the British Museum of Natural History, is to be published as one of their Memoirs. It is the purpose of the writer in these notes to give an outline of the general geology of the islands which were visited. The names given to the rocks are only field terms, as no microscopic examination has been made up to the present.