The vessel remained in a safe harbor near Mounts Terror and Erebus, where it lay frozen in for two winters. Every precaution was taken to insure the safety of the land party in case the ice should break up and force the ship out of the harbor. Suitable huts were erected on shore and a portion of the provisions was landed. Magnetic observations and other scientific work were carried on daily.

During the warmer season of the year many journeys were made into the interior. In order to be able to advance as far as possible, sledge journeys were made along a selected route to establish provision depots. This being done, Captain Scott with two companions and nineteen sledge dogs started for a protracted journey into the interior. They travelled three hundred and fifty miles inland over the great ice-field but did not even then reach the end of it. Then, having lost most of the dogs, and the provisions being low, the party set out on their return to the ship.

The few remaining dogs being disabled, the men were obliged to haul the sledges. Having suffered great hardships, the party reached the vessel after an absence of three months.

On this journey a long range of mountains with many high peaks was discovered. The highest peak, fifteen thousand one hundred feet, was named Mount Markham. The latitude reached was 82° 17' south, being the farthest distance south attained. On a subsequent journey a plateau of nine thousand feet elevation was reached, where the evenness of the ice surface for miles seemed scarcely broken. The length of this journey was three hundred miles.

At the end of the second winter two relief ships appeared at the edge of the ice with orders that Captain Scott should return home at once. The Discovery was still sealed up in the harbor with solid ice from twelve to seventeen feet thick, and it was a problem how to free the vessel. The solid ice extended out more than six miles from the harbor.

The crews set resolutely to work making holes in the ice in a direct line from the imprisoned vessel to the open water. In these holes powerful explosives were placed which cracked the ice. This labor consumed some nine days. Then the great ocean swells broke up the ice, freeing the vessel. The Discovery forthwith sailed for England by way of Cape Horn, arriving home in September, having gathered much valuable information during her sojourn in the south polar regions.

Although practically no vegetable life has been found in these regions, an abundance of animal life exists in or contiguous to the sea, dependent on shrimps, fish, and such other life as the sea affords. Seals, penguins, petrels, cormorants, and gulls are found in considerable numbers. In fact, no persons tarrying in these regions need starve for lack of food, such as it is.

The penguin defies the cold
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