The Worst Journey in the World Part 54

Buckley, out of the wind and quite warm again: it was a wonderful change.

After lunch we all geologized on till supper, and I was very late turning in, examining the moraine after supper. Socks, all strewn over the rocks, dried splendidly. Magnificent Beacon sandstone cliffs. Ma.s.ses of limestone in the moraine, and dolerite crags in various places. Coal seams at all heights in the sandstone cliffs, and lumps of weathered coal with fossil vegetable. Had a regular field-day and got some splendid things in the short time."

"_February 9, Moraine visit._ We made our way along down the moraine, and at the end of Mt. Buckley [I] unhitched and had half an hour over the rocks and again got some good things written up in sketch-book. We then left the moraine and made a very good march on rough blue ice all day with very small and scarce sc.r.a.ps of neve, on one of which we camped for the night with a rather overcast foggy sky, which cleared to bright sun in the night. We are all thoroughly enjoying temps. of +10 or thereabouts now, with no wind instead of the summit winds which are incessant with temp. -20."

"_February 10._ ?16 m. We made a very good forenoon march from 10 to 2.45 towards the Cloudmaker. Weather overcast gradually obscured everything in snowfall fog, starting with crystals of large size.... We had to camp after 2 hours' afternoon march as it got too thick to see anything and we were going downhill on blue ice...."[335]

[Ill.u.s.tration: BUCKLEY ISLAND--E. A. Wilson, del. Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.]

The next day in bad lights and on a bad surface they fell into the same pressure which both the other returning parties experienced. Like them they were in the middle of it before they realized. "Then came the fatal decision to steer east. We went on for 6 hours, hoping to do a good distance, which I suppose we did, but for the last hour or two we pressed on into a regular trap. Getting on to a good surface we did not reduce our lunch meal, and thought all going well, but half an hour after lunch we got into the worst ice mess I have ever been in. For three hours we plunged on on ski, first thinking we were too much to the right, then too much to the left; meanwhile the disturbance got worse and my spirits received a very rude shock. There were times when it seemed almost impossible to find a way out of the awful turmoil in which we found ourselves.... The turmoil changed in character, irregular creva.s.sed surface giving way to huge chasms, closely packed and most difficult to cross. It was very heavy work, but we had grown desperate. We won through at 10 P.M., and I write after 12 hours on the march...."[336]

Wilson continues the story:

"_February 12._ We had a good night just outside the ice-falls and disturbances, and a small breakfast of tea, thin hoosh and biscuit, and began the forenoon by a decent bit of travelling on rubbly blue ice in crampons: then plunged into an ice-fall and wandered about in it for hours and hours."

"_February 13._ We had one biscuit and some tea after a night's sleep on very hard and irregular blue ice amongst the ice-fall creva.s.ses. No snow on the tent, only ski, etc. Got away at 10 A.M. and by 2 P.M. found the depot, having had a good march over very hard rough blue ice. Only hour in the disturbance of yesterday. The weather was very thick, snowing and overcast, could only just see the points of bearing for depot. However, we got there, tired and hungry, and camped and had hoosh and tea and 3 biscuits each. Then away again with our three and a half days' food from this red flag depot and off down by the Cloudmaker moraine. We travelled about 4 hours on hard blue ice, and I was allowed to geologize the last hour down the two outer lines of boulders. The outer one all dolerite and quartz rocks, the inner all dolerite and sandstone.... We camped on the inner line of boulders, weather clearing all the afternoon."[337]

Meanwhile both Wilson and Bowers had been badly snow-blind, though Wilson does not mention it in his diary; and this night Scott says Evans had no power to a.s.sist with camping work. A good march followed on February 14, but "there is no getting away from the fact that we are not pulling strong. Probably none of us: Wilson's leg still troubles him and he doesn't like to trust himself on ski; but the worst case is Evans, who is giving us serious anxiety. This morning he suddenly disclosed a huge blister on his foot. It delayed us on the march, when he had to have his crampon readjusted. Sometimes I feel he is going from bad to worse, but I trust he will pick up again when we come to steady work on ski like this afternoon. He is hungry and so is Wilson. We can't risk opening out our food again, and as cook at present I am serving something under full allowance. We are inclined to get slack and slow with our camping arrangement, and small delays increase. I have talked of the matter to-night and hope for improvement. We cannot do distance without the hours."[338]

There was something wrong with this party: more wrong, I mean, than was justified by the tremendous journey they had already experienced. Except for the blizzard at the bottom of the Beardmore and the surfaces near the Pole it had been little worse than they expected. Evans, however, who was considered by Scott to be the strongest man of the party, had already collapsed, and it is admitted that the rest of the party was becoming far from strong. There seems to be an unknown factor here somewhere.

[Ill.u.s.tration: MT. KYFFIN--E. A. Wilson, del.]

Wilson's diary continues: "_February 15. 13 m. geog._ I got on ski again first time since damaging my leg and was on them all day for 9 hours. It was a bit painful and swelled by the evening, and every night I put on snow poultice. We are not yet abreast of Mt. Kyffin, and much discussion how far we are from the Lower Glacier Depot, probably 18 to 20 m.: and we have to reduce food again, only one biscuit to-night with a thin hoosh of pemmican. To-morrow we have to make one day's food which remains last over the two. The weather became heavily overcast during the afternoon and then began to snow, and though we got in our 4 hours' march it was with difficulty, and we only made a bit over 5 miles. However, we are nearer the depot to-night."

"_February 16. 12 m. geog._ Got a good start in fair weather after one biscuit and a thin breakfast, and made 7 m. in the forenoon. Again the weather became overcast and we lunched almost at our old bearing on Kyffin of lunch Dec. 15. All the afternoon the weather became thick and thicker and after 3 hours Evans collapsed, sick and giddy, and unable to walk even by the sledge on ski, so we camped. Can see no land at all anywhere, but we must be getting pretty near the Pillar Rock. Evans'

collapse has much to do with the fact that he has never been sick in his life and is now helpless with his hands frost-bitten. We had thin meals for lunch and supper."

"_February 17._ The weather cleared and we got away for a clear run to the depot and had gone a good part of the way when Evans found his ski shoes coming off. He was allowed to readjust and continue to pull, but it happened again, and then again, so he was told to unhitch, get them right, and follow on and catch us up. He lagged far behind till lunch, and when we camped we had lunch, and then went back for him as he had not come up. He had fallen and had his hands frost-bitten, and we then returned for the sledge, and brought it, and fetched him in on it as he was rapidly losing the use of his legs. He was comatose when we got him into the tent, and he died without recovering consciousness that night about 10 P.M. We had a short rest for an hour or two in our bags that night, then had a meal and came on through the pressure ridges about 4 miles farther down and reached our Lower Glacier Depot. Here we camped at last, had a good meal and slept a good night's rest which we badly needed. Our depot was all right."[339] "A very terrible day.... On discussing the symptoms we think he began to get weaker just before we reached the Pole, and that his downward path was accelerated first by the shock of his frost-bitten fingers, and later by falls during rough travelling on the glacier, further by his loss of all confidence in himself. Wilson thinks it certain he must have injured his brain by a fall. It is a terrible thing to lose a companion in this way, but calm reflection shows that there could not have been a better ending to the terrible anxieties of the past week. Discussion of the situation at lunch yesterday shows us what a desperate pa.s.s we were in with a sick man on our hands at such a distance from home."[340]

[Ill.u.s.tration: WHERE EVANS DIED--E. A. Wilson, del.]

FOOTNOTES:

[294] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 536.

[295] It is to be noticed that every return party, including the Polar Party, was supposed by their companions to be going to have a very much easier time than, as a matter of fact, they had.--A. C.-G.

[296] Bowers.

[297] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 530-534.

[298] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. p. 291.

[299] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 540.

[300] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 541-542.

[301] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. pp.

144-146.

[302] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. p. 41.

[303] See pp. x.x.xviii-x.x.xix.

[304] See p. xivii.

[305] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 543.

[306] Wilson.

[307] Evidently meaning some miles from crest to crest.

[308] Bowers, _Polar Meteorological Log._

[309] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 543-544.

[310] Simpson, _B.A.E., 1910-1913_, "Meteorology," vol. i. p. 40.

[311] Bowers.

[312] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. pp. 550-551.

[313] Bowers.

[314] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 552.

[315] Bowers.

[316] Wilson.

[317] Wilson.

[318] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 541.

[319] Ibid. p. 549.

[320] Wilson.

[321] _Scott's Last Expedition_, vol. i. p. 557.

[322] Ibid. pp. 560, 561.

[323] Wilson.

[324] Ibid.

[325] Bowers.

[326] Wilson.