Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
87
a fervent 'Thank God' we all did a right-about turn, and as quick a march as tired limbs
would allow back in the direction of our little green tent in the wilderness of snow.”
To be back at the coast on February 1, when Nimrod had been instructed to begin
its search, the men needed to cover sixteen miles per day. Descending over the plateau,
they managed to keep the pace and even to exceed it on days when the sail could be used.
When they reached Larsen Glacier, however, they fell into several crevasses, including one
where both David and Mackay hung at the same time, though not deeply. The final leg
over lower Larsen Glacier and the ice foot beyond proved to be the most diYcult of the
return. Thwarted by deep ice canyons and pressure ridges, desperate for food, ultimately
lost, they finally spotted the depot on February 2, but as the party made its way toward it,
they were blocked by an ice canyon thirty to forty feet deep. Having been on the march
for nearly twenty-four hours, and with only two days' biscuit and a bit of cheese in their
store, the famished trio encountered a pair of emperor penguins. The nourishment the
birds provided permitted the men to set up camp. The following day was also exhaust-
ing, but with fresh meat now at hand they allowed themselves to camp about a mile short
of the depot. The following day, February 4, while the men were discussing whether to
wait at the depot or to try to pull overland to Cape Royds, Nimrod spotted the depot flag
and fired a cannon shot as a signal.
The three men bolted out of the tent, turning over their cooker as they went, and
gleefully ran toward the sound. Suddenly, Mawson disappeared from sight, having fallen
into a crevasse with no harness rope to hold him. In shock, David and Mackay peered into
the slot to see Mawson on his back on a shelf about twenty feet down, and only a few feet
above seawater that flooded the depths of the crevasse. They lowered a harness but were
too weak to pull him out, so the first words that Mackay shouted to the ship when he
reached her were, “Mawson has fallen down a crevasse, and we got to the Magnetic Pole.”
A rescue party was immediately dispatched and Mawson was pulled from the depths,
thus ending happily one of Antarctica's most grueling journeys. The men had been on the
trail for 122 days, covering 1,260 miles, 740 of which had been times three due to relaying.
The usual congratulations, ritual washing, and gluttonous food binge awaited the explor-
ers on board the Nimrod.
When Nimrod arrived at Cape Royds on February 11, all the parties that had been
in the field were back except for Shackleton's southern party and a depot party to Minna
BluV led by Joyce. Joyce's party arrived back on February 20, but the plight of the south-
ern party remained in doubt. Shackleton had left instructions that if his party had not
returned by February 25, a rescue party should be readied and sent out on March 1. Great
apprehension attended the members of the expedition as the deadline came and went and
the southern party still had not arrived.
After the traverse to the Magnetic South Pole, the map of Victoria Land was largely
complete. Mawson's surveying had tied down most of the prominent peaks visible from
the coast between New Harbour and Terra Nova Bay, although the interior reaches of the
mountains remained uncharted. During Scott's Ter ra No va Expedition (1910-1913), three
ground parties would fill in some local details, but the remaining white on the map, in
