Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
53
in particular, who had broken down toward the end of the journey and had to be carried
on a sledge.
The welcome back at the Discovery was a gala aVair with all flags flying. As the south-
ern party soundly shook the hands of the well-fed, tidy crew, they finally gained a per-
spective on their deplorable condition. Wilson noted, “I began to realize then how filthy
we were—long sooty hair, black greasy clothes, faces and noses all peeling and sore, lips
all raw, everything either sunburnt or bleached, even our sledges and the harness—things
one didn't realize before, and our faces the color of brown boots, except where the lamp
soot made them black.” A bath and clean clothes preceded a huge dinner, and then the
weary explorers retreated to their bunks with letters from loved ones, and finally the relief
of sweet sleep.
The good news had been that Morning had arrived a week before with resupplies
and a year's worth of dispatches from the civilized world. The bad news was that she lay
eight miles out at the edge of fast sea ice, which was showing no signs of breaking out. As
February passed, the situation remained unchanged, making it finally clear that Discovery
would have to remain for another winter. Supplies were transferred, a cache of coal was
left, and Morning sailed north on March 1 carrying eight volunteers from the original Dis-
covery crew and Shackleton, whom Scott had ordered to return because of his bad health.
Shackleton had protested bitterly that base food and a winter's rest would see him right,
but Scott had been unmoved.
Winter passed quickly. Life was easier owing to the experiences of the previous year, and
more pleasant because the few malcontents were all among the departing volunteers.
When the sun returned on August 21, the men were eager to go out sledging. A number
of short sorties filled in the map around McMurdo Sound. Royds and Wilson with four
others sledged over to Cape Crozier in mid-September, hoping to collect some Emperor
penguin eggs at the stage of partial incubation, but they were startled to find that the
chicks had already hatched.
The major undertaking of the season, led by Scott, was to be a sledge journey into the
interior of the ice cap, following Armitage's route through the mountains. Sandstone spec-
imens that he had collected raised the possibility of finding fossils in these sedimentary
rocks, thereby enabling the dating of the sequence. If found, fossils would be a scientific
first for Antarctica. Beyond this, Scott hoped that although the ice appeared to continue
to rise beyond Armitage's westernmost penetration, it would eventually fall oV to a distant
shoreline beyond a western slope. If there was another side to the plateau, Scott would be
the one to find it. But even if there were not, taking the measure of such a vast ice sheet
would itself be a major geographical accomplishment. Scott led a six-man reconnaissance
party, including Skelton, Dailey, Evans, Lashly, and Handsley, across to New Harbour
with the hope of finding access to the lower portion of Ferrar Glacier, thereby avoiding the
precipitous route over Descent Glacier that Armitage had forged the season before.
On September 14 the party spent all day working its way in along the south side of
New Harbour, grappling with disturbed sea ice. That night the men camped at the ter-
minus of the glacier, several miles up the fjord, with the sun casting only a faint crimson
