To the South Pole. Captain Scott’s own story told from his journals

// ( 




‘ SOUTH WITH SCOTT * 






E. R. G. R. Evans’s book about the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913 
has been chosen by Howard Marshall for his ‘ Books I Like talk this after- 
noon at 2.30. Lieut. Evans (now Admiral Evans) was second in command to 
Captain Scott. In this picture he is seen in the Antarctic with a sledge 
theodolite ; in the background is the Barne glacier 







,£ (i $ # 



MUSEUM OF VICTORIA 




1 5060 





SCOTT IN THE ANTARCTIC 

The epic story of the British Antarctic Expedition of 1910-1913 will 
be told in dramatic form tonight at 9.40. Captain Robert Falcon 
Scott, leader of the expedition, and his companions on the dash to 
the South Pole died on the long journey back. This picture of 
Captain Scott was taken by the late Herbert G. Ponting, official 
photographer with the expedition. 








CAPTAIN SCOTT’S LAST MESSAGE. 



~pHE facsimile overleaf of the first page of Captain 
Scott's Last Message to the Public is reproduced for 
the first time, by the kind permission of Lady Scott. It is 
a human document of the greatest interest to all admirers 
of the intrepid explorer, who will not fail to observe that, 
although writing in the face of certain death from exposure 
and starvation, he calmly and dispassionately sets forth the 
reasons for the failure of the Expedition in a message which 
to all appearances might have been written in the peaceful 
seclusion of his study. Surely such an instance of the 
power of mind over body is well-nigh unique. 

The page reads as follows: — 

MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC. 

The causes of this disaster are not due to faulty 
organization, but to misfortune in all risks which had 
to be undertaken. 

1. The loss of pony transport in March. 1911, 

obliged me to start later than I had intended 
and obliged the limits of stuff transported to 
be narrowed. 

2. The weather throughout the outward journey 

and especially the long gale in 83° South, 
stopped us. 

X The soft snow in lower reaches of glacier again 
reduced pace. 

We fought these untoward events with a will, and 
conquered, but it ate into our provision reserve. 

Every detail of our food supplies, clothing, and 
depots, made on the interior ice sheet and on that long 
stretch of 700 miles to the Pole and back, worked out 
to perfection ; the advance party would have returned 
to the Glacier in fine form and with surplus of food 
but for the astonishing failure of the man whom we 
had least expected to fail. Edgar Evans was thought 
the strongest man of the party. 

The Beardmore Glacier is not difficult in fine 
weather, but on our return we did not get a single 
completely fine day. This, with a sick companion, 
enormously increased our anxieties. 




CAPTAIN SCOTT’S LAST MESSAGE. 

(For description see back of this pajje.) 




TO THE SOUTH POLE 



CAPTAIN SCOTT S 
OWN STORY 

TOLD FROM MS JOURNALS 




Photographs by HERBERT G. PONTING, FJR.G.S*, Camera Artist 

to the Expedition* 



This and the articles which are to follow are related from the journals of Captain 
Scott, and give the first connected story of the British Antarctic Expedition 1910-1913. 
The story has been told from the journals by Mr. Leonard Huxley, well known as 
the biographer of his celebrated father, and carefully read and revised by Commander 
Evans, R.N. With few exceptions, all the photographs, which have been selected 
from many hundreds, are here published for the first time. 




HE grandest Polar journey 
on record.” So Sir Clements 
Markham, the greatest living 
authority on Polar explora- 
tion, designates Scott’s last 
expedition, with its great 
example of heroic fortitude 
in the face of overwhelming disaster. The 
most striking incidents of this expedition 
are related in these articles, which form the 
first detailed and illustrated account to be 
given to the world prior to the publication of 
the full story in book form this autumn. 



The Objects of the Expedition. 



The expedition was no mere dash to the 
Pole to snatch priority from rival explorers, 
though the hope of this laurel-leaf in the 



crown of adventure was an added spur to 
natural ambition. The whole was organized 
on such a scale and with such a wide range 
of talent that it should reap a rich harvest 
of scientific results, whether the Southern 
party attained its goal or not. Much had 
been done before, but more remained to do 
— to determine the nature of the Western 
Mountains and their geological history, the 
questions connected with the volcanic areas 
and the past and present Ice Age ; to gather 
completest records of heat and cold, of air 
pressure and currents, of atmospheric elec- 
tricity and magnetism, the formation and 
movements of ice, in this region especially, 
which seemed to be the very birthplace of 
tempests and ice-floes. Limited though the 
range of life appears in these latitudes, there 
was much novel and interesting work for the 



Vol. xlvi.— 1. Copyright, 1913, by “ Everybody’s Magazine,” in the United States of America. 



j 




4 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




CAPTAIN SCOTT AT 

THE LITTLE ROOM IS 
POINTED OUT THE POR- 
AND, ON THE SHELVES 

provided for. At Lyttel- 
ton, New Zealand, while 
a leak in the T err a Nova 
was being repaired, 
everything was taken 
o u t, overhauled, re- 
sorted, and marked 
afresh by the inde- 
fatigable Lieu tenant 
Bowers, who afterwards 
re-stowed the stores so 
as to save space. Even 
so, there was little 
enough room ; Captain 
Scott discovered later 
that the men in the 
forecastle volunteered 
to cramp their own 
quarters so as to pro- 
vide more stowage 



CAPTAIN SCOTT IN THE DRESS WORN DURING THE WINTER AT 
CAPE EVANS. 









biologists, especially in the life-history of the para- 
sites which infest the fish and seals ; while the 
winter journey of Dr. Wilson to find the eggs of the 
Emperor Penguin, so as to determine its affinities 
embryologically, “ makes a tale for our generation 
which I trust ” (wrote Scott) “ will not be lost in 
the telling.” 

The organization of so large a party with such 
varied aims was com- 
plex to the last degree. 

But every detail of 
supply was thought out 
in advance ; every con- 
ceivable contingency 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



5 



I 

I 

I 




Misfortunes at the Start. 



WORK IN HIS DEN AT THE MAIN HUT. CAPE EVANS. 

CROWDED WITH HIS PERSONAL BELONGINGS, AMONG WHICH MAY BE 
TRAITS OF LADY SCOTT AND THEIR SON PETER ON THE WALL BY HIS SIDE 
IN THE TOP LEFT-HAND CORNER, THE VOLUMES OF HIS JOURNALS. 



room. “ They were prepared to pig it, any- 
how, and a few cubic feet of space didn’t 
matter ; such is their spirit.” 

Nevertheless, there remained a heavy deck- 
cargo, including thirty tons of coal, two and 
a half tons of petrol, bales of fodder, meat, in 
the ice-house, and the three motor-sledges, 
each in a package sixteen feet by five by 
four, so carefully covered with tarpaulin that 
they emerged spick and span after the tem- 
pestuous voyage. Besides thirty-three dogs, 
there were nineteen Siberian ponies on 
board, for experience had shown their great 
value as load-haulers over the comparative 
level of the Barrier ice. Of the dogs, a 
splendid collection, there were high hopes ; 
it was not till w T ell on in the winter, 
after alternate satisfaction and disappoint- 
ments and careful discussion, that the 
Southern party resolved not to take them up 



From the first the ex- 
pedition had more than its 
due share of ill-fortune. 
On November 26th, 1910, 
the Terra Nova sailed out 
of Lyttelton Harbour amid 
a scene of great enthusiasm 
on the part of the hos- 
pitable and helpful New 
Zealanders, a gay scene 
repeated three days later 
at Port Chalmers, where 
Scott joined the ship. 
If anything, more craft 
followed her out of the harbour, the tugs 
keeping company for a couple of hours. But 
the Southern Seas in “the roaring forties” 
are fierce and strong. Dirty weather began 
at once, and on the third day out a great 
gale nearly sent them all to the bottom. 
It was no longer the time to smile at individual 
struggles against sea-sickness, or the spectacle 
of the undaunted photographer, a developing- 
dish in one hand, an ordinary basin in the 
other. 

Nearly Wrecked in a Gale. 

At 4 p.m. on December 1st the storm came 
on. “ Soon,” writes Scott, “ we were plung- 
ing heavily and taking much water over the 
lee rail. Cases of petrol, forage, etc., began 
to break loose on the upper deck. The 
principal trouble was caused by the loose 



the broken surface of the 
glacier, and so to the long 
expanse of the summit. 
The difference between 
dogs and men as travellers 
under such trying, mono- 
tonous conditions is 
curious. Dogs seem to feel 
the lack of variety and 
interest more than the toil. 
Where they would grow 
dispirited under the im- 
pression of the day, men 
could endure, looking to 
the future ; and this, it 
appears, apart from the 
detestable necessity of kill- 
ing off the animals on the 
return trip, was one of 
the reasons for trusting to 
man-haulage on the later 
stages of the long journey. 






0 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




Atkinson 

(Bacteriologist) 



MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION AT CAPTAIN SCOTT'S BIRTHDAY 

The names are as follows, reading 

Oates Me ares Chekky-Garrard Taylor Nelson Evans Scott 

(standing) (in charge (Assist. Zoologist) (Physio- (Biologist) (Second in 
(in charge ox of dogs) grapher) Command) 

ponies) 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



7 




DINNER IN THE MAIN HUT AT CAPE EVANS, JUNE 6th, 1911, 



from left to right of the picture: — 



Wilson 
(Chief of 
Scientific 
Staff) 



Simpson ^ Bowers 

(Meteorologist) (in charge 
of stores) 



Gran 
(standing) 
(Ski expert) 



Wright 

(Physicist) 



Deiienham 

(Geologist) 



Day 

(Mptor 

Engineer) 




8 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




C. ARMITACE 
1 CE 

Thi® drifts our 
during February 1411 

3 Ponies '* 
losf here 

& 



r HOME BASE On 

j ^ SAFETY CAMP . Feb 2^1911 

— ' ^ fhe 5 Far! was made 

b South Atkinson 

' ^*v and Crean 

lefh behind 

»ere d ie A 



 

CORNER CAMP 
 camps 



BLACK 

ISLAND* 







Cap Scoff and dogs 
fait into crevasse 



w 




BLUFF U 

DEPOT , 

Camp 11 I 

3 PONIES | 

SENT BACK I 



ONE TON 
CAMP 

(C amp 15) 

Lath T9-aai 



MAP SHOWING THE MOVEMENTS OF THE EXPEDITION 
RELATED IN THE PRESENT ARTICLE. 



coal-bags, which were bodily lifted 
by the seas and swung against the 
lashed cases ; they acted like batter- 
ing-rams. It was hard work moving 
these bags to places of better security. 

“ The night wore on, the sea and 
wind ever rising and the ship ever 
plunging more distractedly. We 
shortened sail to maintopsail and 
staysail, stopped engines, and hove 
to, but to little purpose. Tales of 
ponies down came frequently from 
forward, where Oates and Atkinson 
laboured through the entire night. 
Worse was to follow — much worse: 
a report from the engine-room that 
the pumps had choked and the water 
risen over the gratings. From this 
moment, about 4 a.m., the engine- 
room became the centre of interest ; 
the water gained in spite of every 
effort. Lashley, to his neck in rush- 
ing water, stuck grimly to the work 
of clearing suctions. For a time, 
with donkey-engine and bilge-pump 
sucking, it looked as though the 
water would be got under, but the 
hope was short-lived ; five minutes 
of pumping invariably led to the 
same result — a general choking of 
the pumps. 

The Pumps Fail. 

“ The outlook appeared grim ; the 
hand-pump produced only a dribble, 
and its suction could not be got at ; 
as the water crept higher it got in 
contact with the boiler and grew 
warmer — so hot at last that no one 
could work at the suctions. Williams 
had to confess he was beaten and 
must draw fires. What was to be 
done ? The sea appeared higher than 
ever ; it came over the rail and poop, 
a rush of green water ; the ship wal- 
lowed in it. A great piece of the 
bulwarks carried clean away. 

“ The bilge-pump is dependent on 
the main- engine. To use this pump 
it was necessary to go ahead. It was 
at such times that the heaviest seas 
swept in over the lee rail ; over and 
over the rail from the fore rigging 
to the main was covered by a solid 
sheet of curling water, which swept aft 
and high on the poop. On one occa- 
sion I was waist deep when standing 
on the rail of the poop. 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY . 



9 




“The after- 
guard (i.e., the 
twenty-four 
officers) was organ- 
ized in two parties 
by Lieutenant 
Evans to work 
buckets, the men 
were kept steadily 
going on the 
choked hand- 
pump. . * . What 
a measure to count 
as the sole safe- 
guard of the ship 
from s i n k i n g — 
practically an at- 
tempt to bail her 
out ! Yet, strange 
as it may seem, 
the effort has not 
been wholly fruit- 
less ; the string of 
buckets, which has 
now been kept 
going for four 
hours, together 
with the dribble 
from the pump, 
has kept the water 
under — if any- 
thing, there is a 
small decrease. 

“ Meanwhile we 
have been think- 
ing of a way to 
get at the suction 
of the pump. A 
hole is being made 
in the engine-room 
bulkhead ; the coal 
between this and 
the pump-shaft will 
be removed, and a 
hole made in the 
shaft. With so 
much water coming 
on board it is im- 
possible to open the hatch over the shaft. We 
are not out of the wood, but hope dawns, as 
indeed it should for me, when I find myself so 
wonderfully served. Officers and men are 
singing chanties over their arduous work. 
Williams is working in sweltering heat behind 
the boiler to get the door made in the bulk- 
head ; not a single one has lost his good spirits.” 
Slowly the gale abated, and, though the sea 
was still mountainously high, the ship-laboured 
less heavily and took in less water. Bailing 



WHO HAD CHARGE OF THE 



CAPTAIN OATES, 

PONIES, IS HERE SEEN IN THE STABLE ON THE 
“TERRA NOVA.” 



continued in two-hour shifts. By 10 p.m. 
the hole in the engine-room bulkhead was 
completed, ‘ £ and Lieutenant Evans, wrig- 
gling over the coal, found his way to the pump 
shaft and down it. He soon cleared the 
suction and, to the joy of all, a good stream 
of water came from the pump for the first 
time. Though the pump choked again 
several times, doubt had ended ; and with 
no second gale to follow immediately, the 
ship went on her way with the lo §5 of two 





10 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 




ponies, one dog, sixt.y-five gallons of petrol, 
and a case of the biologist’s spirit. 

Thence it was a case of “ fighting her 
way South ” through heavy seas and another 
gale till the ice was sighted on December 
9th and the pack entered on December 10th. 
With baffling winds and cross-currents, and 
the need of husbanding coal and only 
steaming when at last favourable leads 
opened out, they were kept prisoners for 
twenty days — “an ex-asperating game. 
Great patience is the only panacea for our 
ill case.” Men could get exercise by taking 
out their ski on the floes, but the long 
confinement augured ill for the ponies’ 
condition. 

Singing to the Penguins. 

An odd entertainment on the floes was 
afforded by the big Adelie penguins. “ The 
latest amusement is to sing songs to them. 
The music is supposed to charm them, and 
it appears that a party on our ‘ long de- 
tention ’ floe entertained a group of pen- 
guins with chanties for quite a long time 
and, as declared by the party, to the afford- 
ing of much mutual satisfaction.” Wilson 
later tried this lure in order to capture 
some specimens. They came towards him 



ENTERING THE 



COMMANDER EVANS DIRECTING THE COURSE OF THE “TERRA 
NOVA ” FROM THE CROW’S-NEST. 



when he was singing and 
ran away again when he 
stopped, seeming to be 
exceptionally shy young 
birds, but attracted to the 
ship by a fearful curiosity* 
It was ill-luck, but the 
bright side was that every- 
one was ready to exert 
himself to the utmost. 
Cheerfulness and good- 
fellowship reigned, whether 
in calm or storm. Marine 
life, the very different 
movements of the bergs 
and floes, the discussion 
of plans, provided interest. 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



ii 




ICE-PACK — A VIEW TAKEN FROM THE MAINTOP OF THE “TERRA NOVA. 



Between a storm and a storm the release 
from their long captivity came almost 
suddenly, and a little before midnight 
on the last day of the year Mount Sabine 
could be seen a hundred and ten miles 
away. Nineteen hundred and eleven was 
ushered in by a glorious day, when a man 
could read and bask in the sun at n p.m., 
and on January 2nd Mount Erebus, their 
fiery landmark, rose into view, though still a 
hundred and fifteen miles distant. 

The large island on which stand Mounts 
Erebus and Terror is roughly triangular in 
shape, its sides, from forty to forty-five miles 
long, facing north-east, south, and west. The 
northern apex, first reached, is Cape Bird ; 
steering to the left, or south-east, the eastern 



extremity of the island is Cape Crozier, where 
the great Ice Barrier comes -down to the sea, 
its front extending well over four hundred 
miles to the east. Steering to the west, the 
ship enters McMurdo Sound, between the 
island and the Western Mountains on the 
mainland opposite. At the southern ex- 
tremity of this side of the island is the long 
promontory of Cape Armitage, with Hut 
Point, where the Discovery wintered in 1902. 
From this some five miles of sea-ice leads up 
to the flank of the Barrier, which backs on the 
mountain range of the continent and spreads 
at its foot, and was to be traversed for nearly 
four hundred miles south till a gap in the 
soaring ramparts is made by the Beardmore 
Glacier. 





12 



TI1E STRAND MAGAZINE. 




A VIEW OF THE DECK OF THE “TERRA NOVA, 1 ’ SHOWING THE DOGS UNDER THE CHARGE OF 
M FARES, WHO IS SEEN IN THE FOREGROUND. 



The Station at Cape Evans. 

The old winter quarters were undesirable, 
being exposed to the winds that swept the 
Barrier to the south of the island and Cape 
Crozier, as well as less accessible to a relief 
ship. Cape Crozier offered man)- advantages, 
but landing would have taken weeks. Then 
came the first good fortune of the expedition. 
An ideal spot was found half - way up 
the west coast, sheltered from the w r orst 
winds, and with a natural landing-stage in 
the shape of a level floe, one and a quarter 
miles wide, still firm and fast before the full 
summer break-up. In eight days the dis- 
embarkation was complete, the Main Hut. 
habitable, though not actually finished, the 
stores in apple-pie order, and Bowxrs, the 
organizing genius, able to lay his hand on 
anything required ; the dogs and po~ies 
refreshed, even skittish, sometimes upsetting 
their drivers and loads, and hauling load 



after load across the ice and up the beach, 
some of the party taking ten journeys in the 
day — i.e., twenty-five miles. The speed with 
which all w r as completed was the consequence 
of the previous months of care. Only one 
catastrophe marred the perfection of the 
work. The thawing of the ice proceeded 
rapidly ; one of the motors broke through a 
soft patch where all had been well a few hours 
before and went to the bottom, happily 
without loss of life. 

An Exciting Adventure With Killer- 
Whales. 

The strangest adventure w'as on the second 
day of the disembarkation. Scott, coming on 
deck a little late — for he had had a spell of 
forty-eight hours without sleep — saw' six or 
seven killer - whales (or grampus), old and 
young, skirting the fast floe edge ahead of 
the ship. They seemed excited, and dived 
rapidly, almost touching the floe. Suddenly 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



r 3 



they appeared astern, raising their snouts 
out ot water. “ I had heard weird stories of 
these beasts/’ writes Scott, “ but had never 
associated serious danger with them. Close 
to the water’s edge lay the wire stern-rope 
of the ship, and our two Eskimo dogs were 
tethered to this. I did not think of connect- 
ing the movements of the whales with this 
fact, and, seeing them so close, I shouted to 
Ponting, who was standing abreast of the ship. 
He seized his camera and ran towards the 
floe-edge to get a close picture of the beasts, 
which had momentarily disappeared. The 
next moment the whole floe under him [and 
the dogs heaved up and split into fragments. 
Whale after whale rose under the ice, setting 
it rocking fiercely. One could hear the 
* booming ’ noise as the whales rose under the 
ice and struck it with their backs. Luckily 
Ponting kept his feet and was able to fly to 
security. By an extraordinary chance also, 
the splits had been made around and between 



the dogs, so that neither of them fell into the 
water. Then it was clear that the whales 
shared our astonishment, for one after 
another their huge, hideous heads shot 
vertically into the air through the cracks 
which they had made. As they reared them 
to a height of six or eight feet [killers run to 
twenty feet long] it was possible to see their 
tawny head-markings, their small, glistening 
eyes, and their terrible array of teeth, by far 
the largest and most terrifying in the world. 
There cannot be a doubt that they looked 
up to see what had happened to Ponting and 
the dogs. The latter were horribly frightened, 
and strained to their chains whining. The 
head of one killer must certainly have been 
within five feet of one of the dogs. 

“ After this, whether they thought the game 
insignificant, or whether they missed Ponting, 
is uncertain ; but the terrifying creatures 
passed on to other hunting.” And it was 
possible to rescue both the dogs, and, almost 




THE MAIN HUT AT CAPE EVANS, WITH MOUNT EREBUS IN THE BACKGROUND. 



HERE THE EXPEDITION SPENT THE WINTER WHILE LAYING OUT DEPOTS TOWARDS THE POLE. 
THE READER WILL NOTE THE SLEDGES AND SKIS PLACED ROUND THE HUT FOR THE NIGHT, 
THIS PHOTOGRAPH WAS TAKEN BY MOONLIGHT. 





H 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



more important, five or six tons of petrol 
stacked on a piece of ice now split off. Such 
singular intelligence, combined with the 
strength to break ice two and a half feet in 
thickness, thereafter commanded a wary 
respect. 

Laying the Depots of Provisions. 

No sooner was all ashore than preparations 
began for the first depot-laving, to start if 
possible at the end of the month, as soon as 
the ponies were in proper condition. Here, 
as always, Scott found his transport officer, 
Bowers, invaluable, working out the figures 
of every detail and putting the results into 
practice. “ lie is a perfect treasure, and 
enters into one’s ideas at once, and evidently 
thoroughly understands the principles of the 
game.” Had he only been surrounded by a 
few men of courage, enthusiasm, and practical 
capacity, it would have been much ; but the 
perfection of working struck him as almost 
too good to be real, and, to give but one 
sentence of praise among many, “ Indeed, it 
is hard to specialize praise where everyone is 
working so indefatigably for the cause. Each 
man in his way is a treasure.” 

Nearly three months of the autumn 
(January 24th to April 13th) were spent in 
the depot-laying to the south, and at the same 
time a party, under Griffith Taylor, whom 
“ Wilson, dear chap,” had been carefully 
coaching, explored and geologized and gained 
experience among the Western Mountains. 

For the Southern party, the first objective 
was Hut Point, on Cape Armitage, at the 
opposite end of the island. The approach was 
by the “ road ” of fast ice along the shore, 
which must be expected to break up in a few 
days for the rest of the summer. A few 
miles south of the station a glacier descended 
from Mount Erebus, thrusting a massive 
tongue into the open water of the Sound. The 
track went of necessity over this tongue, and 
the way up and down was too steep for laden 
ponies. Accordingly, while the rest of the 
party and the stores and sledges were conveyed 
beyond the tongue by the ship, the ponies 
were led afoot, crossed the glacier, and reached 
the farther floe w ith a single mishap, one pony 
slipping into a snow-covered crack and having 
to be hauled out with ropes. 

Safety Camp. 

Once assembled on the farther floe the party 
set off in lively style. The task before the 
1w r elve men, eight ponies, and twenty-six 



dogs w^as first to transport the eight tons of 
stores from the ship to a secure point on the 
permanent ice of the Barrier, afterwards 
called Safety Camp, about six miles east- 
south-east of Hut Point, fourteen from the 
ship, and twenty-one from the station, before 
the ice should break up. Then, with Safety 
Camp as home base, a further depot could he 
laid to the south. “Safety” was the third 
camp from the ship, and the teams made a 
threefold journey between camp and camp to 
convey all the stores. The dogs gave rise to 
various excitements, as when, at the outset, 
they started on hard ice with a light load ; 
nothing could hold them, and they dashed off 
over everything, to the imminent peril of their 
drivers ; or when, as Scott w r as returning to the 
ship, they caught sight of a whale breaching 
in the thirty-foot stretch of open water 
across their path, and promptly made for it. 

It was all we could do to stop them before w r e 
reached the water.” 

The Ponies. 

The ponies gave promise of being “ real 
good.” “ They work with extraordinary 
steadiness, stepping out briskly and cheer- 
fully, and following in each other’s tracks. 
The great drawback is the case with which 
they sink in soft snow.” Indeed, when con- 
ditions suddenly became very bad it seemed 
best to spare the ponies ; to bring up as much 
of the last load as the dogs could draw r and 
leave the rest of the fodder where it stood, on 
the Barrier, but one and a half miles short of 
Safety ^ Camp. A remedy was afterwards 
found in a sort of snowshoe. However, they 
were by no means tame or dull. One spirited, 
nervous fellow, at a morning start, got away 
when his head was left for a moment and 
charged through the camp at a gallop, finally 
cannoning with another sledge and breaking 
free. Another, led by the young ski-ing 
expert of the party, went w r ell w r hile he was 
alongside, but wdien he came up from the 
back the beast was frightened by the swish 
of the ski and fled, load and all, faster than 
the trained ski-runner in pursuit. 

By January 31st fourteen weeks’ stores for 
man and beast (dating from the 25th) had 
been brought up. Scott’s plan, which he 
now T unfolded, was to go forward with five 
weeks’ supplies, depot a fortnight’s supply 
after travelling tw r elve or thirteen days, and 
return to Safety Camp. This would give 
light loads all round, and should be feasible 
if the surface w r ere good. 

That afternoon all was ready for the start, 



CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY. 



*5 




THE “TERRA NOVA'* HELD UP BY THE ICE-PACK. 

THE MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION WERE KEPT PRISONERS FOR TWENTY DAYS. AS CAPTAIN SCOTT 
WROTE.* “AN EXASPERATING GAME. GREAT PATIENCE IS THE ONLY PANACEA FOR OUR ILL CASE,” 




TIIE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



1 6 

but before leaving an experiment was made. 
The one pair of horse snowshoes was tried on 
the quiet pony rejoicing in the name of 
Weary Willie. It could not have been ex- 
pected that the quietest animal would endure 
them without long practice, but “ the effect 
was magical ; he strolled round as though 
walking on hard ground In places where he 
floundered woefully without them.” Here 
was the chance of doubling the length of the 
journey. Within half an hour Wilson and 
Meares were off to the station, twenty miles 
away, in the hope of getting more. They 
returned next day empty-handed. The ice 
was out — no return to Cape Evans— no pony 
snowshoes — alas ! 

On February 2nd the actual start was 
made, Atkinson, with a sore foot, result of 
mistaken zeal in not early confessing to a 
blister, being compulsorily left behind, with 
Crean to look after him. 

The surface, hard in parts, was soft in 
others. All approved their leader’s sugges- 
tion to march at night, with the hardest sur- 
faces, and rest with greater comfort for the 
ponies in the warm hours of the day. And 
so they moved on “ through the eternal 
silence of the great white desert — the vast 
silence broken only by the mellow sounds of 
the marching column.” 

In the deep drifts came the triumph of the 
sole pair of snowshoes. They were put on 
the big pony ; be w r alked about awkwardly 
for a few minutes only, then settled down, 
was harnessed, and led the way easily over 
the mass of soft snow deep drifted in the 
hollow of a great pressure wave. But as the 
worst drifts seemed to occur only in patches, 
“ our course is to pick a way with the surer- 
footed beasts and keep the others back till 
the road has been tested. What extra- 
ordinary uncertainties the work exhibits. 
Every day some new fact comes to light, some 
new obstacle which threatens the gravest 
obstruction. I suppose this is the reason 
which makes the game so well worth playing.” 

From Safety Camp fifteen marches were 
made, the first three east-south-east as far 
as Corner Camp, to get round a projecting 
spur of the mountains, dubbed the Bluff, then 
due south to One Ton Camp, in lat. 79*28^. 
The intention had been to plant this depot 
on the eightieth parallel, but three days had 
been lost at Corner Camp by reason of a 
fierce blizzard, and the ponies were beginning 
to feel the strain — chiefly, it seemed, because 
they had not yet grown thick enough coats, 
and partly on account of their forty days’ 
confinement in the ship. From Camp 11, or 



Bluff (’amp, where an intermediate depot 
was made, the three weakest beasts were 
sent back with Ford and Keohane, under 
Lieutenant Evans, who was to take this 
opportunity of making an accurate survey 
on his return. Nevertheless, enough was 
carried forward to support a unit of four men 
for seven weeks, besides ponies and dogs. 

Incidents of the journey are chiefly con- 
cerned with the animals and the Barrier 
surface. 

The Dog’s. 

“ With our present routine the dogs re- 
mained behind for an hour or more, trying 
to hit off their arrival in the new camp soon 
after the ponies have been picketed. The 
teams are pulling very well, Meares ’s especi- 
ally. The animals are getting a little fierce. 
Two white dogs in Meares’s team have been 
trained to attack strangers. They were 
quiet enough on board ship, but now bark 
fiercely if anyone but their driver approaches 
the team. They suddenly barked at me as 
I was pointing out the stopping-place to 
Meares, and Osman, my erstwhile friend, 
swept round and nipped my leg lightly. I 
had no stick, and there is no doubt that if 
Meares had not been on the sledge the whole 
team, following the lead of the white dogs, 
would have been at me in a moment. Hunger 
and fear are the only realities in dog life, and 
an empty stomach makes a fierce dog.” 

It was strange and almost alarming to see 
the blind workings of natural instinct. The 
dogs, friendly in harness or at rest, were sus- 
picious of one another as soon as food was in 
their thoughts, and the smallest circumstance 
provoked a sudden fight. Equally sudden 
were the fights following a “ mix up ” on the 
march ; a quiet, peaceable team with wagging 
tails one moment, and the next a set of raging, 
tearing, fighting devils. 

“ It is such stern facts that resign one to 
the sacrifice of animal life in the effort to 
advance such human projects as this.” 
One day, near the end of the outward march, 
the pony Weary Willie, true to his name, had 
lagged behind, and, being tired, slipped and 
fell. A dog-team was just coming up. The 
instant they saw him fall they dashed at him 
regardless of control. Weary Willy made a 
gallant fight for it, biting and shaking some of 
the dogs with his teeth, but getting much 
bitten himself, though by good hap not 
seriously. At last the men beat them off, 
breaking ski-sticks and steering-stick. Yet 
the dogs were so tough that they got off 
uninjured. 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



*1 




THIS STRIKING PHOTOGRAPH, ONE OF THE MOST BEAUTIFUL ICE - PICTURES EVER TAKEN, SHOWS 
THE INTERIOR OF A CAVE IN AN ICEBERG. THE “TERRA NOVA,” WHICH MAY BE SEEN IN THE 

DISTANCE, IS ABOUT TWO MILES AWAY. 



Vol. xlv . — 2- 





THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



IS 




CHERRY-GARRARD. BOWERS. 

THE BUNKS IN THE MAIN 

THIS PICTURE GIVES A VIVID IDEA OF THE MANNER 



A March Described. 

The regular march is 
thus described, under date 
of February ioth, between 
Camps 8 and 9 : “ We turn 
o’ it of our sleeping-bags 
about 9 p.m. Somewhere 
about 11.30 I shout to 
the soldier | i.e., Oates] : 

‘ How are things? ’ There 
is a response suggesting 
readiness, and soon after 
figures are busy amongst 
sledges and horses. It 
is chilling work for the 
fingers, and not too warm 
for the feet. The rugs 
come off the animals, the 
harness is put on, tents 
and camp equipment are 
lashed on the sledges, 
nose -bags filled for the 
next halt. One by one 
the animals are taken off 
the picket-rope and yoked 
to the sledges, Oates 
watches his animal warily, 
reluctant to keep such a 
nervous creature standing 
in the traces. If one is 
prompt one feels impatient 
and fretful whilst watch- 
ing one’s more tardy fel- 
lows. Wilson and Meares 
hang about ready to help 
with odds and ends. Still 
we wait ; the picketing 
lines must be gathered 
up, a few pony putties need adjustment, a 
party has been slow striking their tent. With 
numbed fingers on our horse’s bridle, and the 
animal striving to turn its head from the wind, 
one feels resentful. At last all is ready. 
One says, ‘ All right ; Bowers, go ahead,’ and 
Birdie [for such was his nickname] leads his 
big animal forward, starting, as he continues, 
at a steady pace. The horses have got cold, 
and at the word they are off, the soldier’s and 
one or two others, with a rush. Finnesko 
[fur boots] give a poor foothold on the slippery 
sastrugi, and for a minute or two drivers have 
some difficulty in maintaining the pace on 
their feet. Movement is warming, and in 
ten minutes the column has settled itself 
to steady marching. The pace is still brisk, 
the light bad, and at intervals one or another 
of us suddenly steps on a slippery patch and 
falls prone. These are the only real incidents 



of the march ; for the rest, it passes with a 
steady tramp and slight variation of forma- 
tion. The weaker ponies drop a bit, but not 
far, so that they are soon up in line again 
when the first halt is made. We have come to 
a single halt on each half-march. Last night 
it was too cold to stop long, and a very few 
minutes found us on the go again. 

“ As the end of the half-march approaches 
I get out my whistle. Then, at a ‘‘shrill 
blast, Bowers wheels slightly to the his 
tent-mates lead still farther out to get the 
distance for the picket-lines. Oates and I 
stop behind Bowers and Evans, the two 
other sledges of our squad behind the two 
others of Bowers’s. So we are drawn up in 
camp formation. The picket-lines are run 
across at right angles to the line of advance 
and secured to the two sledges at each end. 
In a few minutes ponies are on the lines 




CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY. 



19 




rti CVArta. 

IN WHICH EVERY INCH OF SPACE WAS UTILIZED. 

covered, tents up again, and cookers going. 
Meanwhile, the dog -drivers, after a long, 
cold wait at the old camp, have packed the 
last sledge and come trotting along our 
tracks. They try to time their arrival in the 
new camp immediately after our own, and 
generally succeed well. The mid-march halt 
runs into an hour, and at the end we pack 
up and tramp forth again. We generally 
makd^our final camp about eight o’clock, 
and within an hour and a half most of us are 
in our sleeping-bags. Such is at present the 
daily routine. At the long halts we do our 
best for our animals by building snow walls 
and improving their rugs, etc.’ ? 

The Dogs Fall Into a Crevasse. 

T he farthest depot laid, there was no 
reason for keeping the swifter and the slower 



units together, and Scott 
himself, with Meares, Wil- 
son, and Cherry-Garrard, 
pushed on with the dogs, 
completing the return 
journey lightly laden in 
six marches. The night 
before reaching Safety 
Camp, “ we made a start 
as usual about 10 p.m. 
The light w r as good at first, 
but rapidly grew worse till 
we could see little of the 
surface. About an hour 
and a half after starting 
we came on mistily-cut- 
lined pressure ridges. We 
w ere running by the 
sledges. Suddenly Wilson 
shouted, ‘ Hold on to the 
sledge ! ’ and I saw him 
slip a leg in a crevasse. 
I jumped to the sledge, 
but saw nothing. Five 
minutes after, as the 
teams were trotting side 
by side, the middle dogs 
of our team disappeared. 
In a moment the whole 
team was sinking. Two 
by two we lost sight of 
them, each pair struggling 
for foothold. Osman, the 
leader, exerted all his 
great strength and kept 
a foothold ; it was won- 
derful to see him. The 
sledge stopped, and we 
leapt aside. The 
situation was cJear in another moment. We 
had actually been travelling along the bridge 
of a crevasse ; the sledge had stopped on 
it, whilst the dogs hung in their harness in 
the abyss, suspended between the sledge and 
the leading dog. Why the sledge and our- 
selves didn’t follow the dogs we shall never 
know. I think a fraction of a pound of added 
weight must have taken us down. As soon 
as we grasped the position we hauled the 
sledge clear of the bridge and anchored it. 
Then we peered into the depths of the crack. 
The dogs were howling dismally, suspended 
in all sorts of fantastic positions and evidently 
terribly frightened. Two had dropped out 
of their harness, and we could see them indis- 
tinctly on a snow-bridge far below. The rope 
at either end of the chasm had bitten deep 
into the snow at the side of the crevasse, and 
with the weight below it was impossible to 




20 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 




move it. By this time Wilson and Cherry- 
Garrard, who had seen the accident, had come 
to our assistance. At first tilings looked very 
bad for our poor team, and I saw little prospect 
of rescuing them. 1 had luckily inquired 
about the Alpine rope before starting the 
march, and now Cherrv-Garrard hurriedly 
brought this most essential aid. It takes 
one a little time to make plans in such 
sudden circumstances, and for some minutes 
our efforts were rather futile. We could get 
not one inch on the main trace of the sledge 
or on the leading rope, which was binding 
Osman to the snow with a throttling pressure. 

“ Then thoughts became clearer. We 
unlashed our sledge, putting in safety our 
sleeping-bags with the tent and cooker. 
Choking sounds from Osman made it clear 
that the pressure on him must soon be 
released. I seized the lashing off Meares’s 
sleeping-bag, passed the tent-poles across the 
crevasse, and with Meares managed to get a 
few inches on the leading line. This freed 
Osman, whose harness was immediately cut. 

“ Then, securing the Alpine rope to the 
main trace, we tried to haul up together. 
One dog came up and was unlashed, but by 
this time the rope had cut so far back at the 



edge that it was useless to attempt to get more 
of it. But we could now unbend the sledge 
and do that for which we should have aimed 
from the first — namely, run the sledge across 
the gap and work from it. We managed to 
do this, our fingers constantly numbed. 
Wilson held on to the anchored trace whilst 
the rest of us laboured at the leader end. 
The leading rope was very small and I was 
fearful of its breaking, so Meares was lowered 
down a foot or two to secure the Alpine rope 
to the leading end of the trace. This done, 
the work of rescue proceeded in better order. 
Two by two we hauled the animals up to the 
sledge and one by one cut them out of their 
harness. Strangely, the last dogs were the 
most difficult, as they were close under the 
gap, bound in by the snow-covered rope. 

“ Finally, with a gasp, we got the last poor 
creature on to firm snow. We had recovered 
eleven of the thirteen. Then I wondered if 
the last two could not be got, and we paid down 
the Alpine rope to see if it was long enough 
to reach the snow-bridge on which they were 
coiled. The rope is ninety feet, and the 
amount remaining showed that the depth of 
the bridge was about sixty-five feet. I made 
a bowline and the others lowered me down. 




CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



21 



The bridge was firm, and I got hold of both 
dogs, which were hauled up in turn to the 
surface. Then 1 heard dim shouts and howls 
above. Some of the rescued animals had 
wandered to the second sledge and a big 
fight was in progress. All my rope- tenders 
had to leave to separate the combatants, but 
they soon returned, and with some effort l 
was hauled to the surface. All’s well that 
ends well, and certainly this was a most 
surprisingly happy ending to a very serious 
episode ” — which took, all told, nearly two 
hours. Above all, Scott was pleased by the 
steadiness and resource of his three com- 
panions. 

The conclusion arrived at was the need to 
plot out the danger zone among the cracks 
running from the Bluff to Cape Crozier, and 
to adhere rigidly to the first pony-route, 
where the cracks appeared to be very narrow. 

February 22nd, when they reached Safety 
Camp again early in the morning, was an 
agitating day. They found Lieutenant Evans 
and his return party, but with only one pony. 
Both other weaklings had succumbed to the 
blizzards. After a short sleep they visited 
Hut Point, but Atkinson and Crean had 
vanished, ft was guessed that they had gone 
to meet the new-comers ax Safety Camp ; 



but their tent was not to be seen beside the 
others, and — alarming to contemplate — the 
ice over which they must have passed near 
Cape Armitage was full of water-holes. It 
was so ; they had come, and their tent was 
not yet up. But the mail they brought with 
them disturbed the sense of relief. 

News of Amundsen. 

A letter from Lieutenant Campbell told 
how he had found Amundsen established in 
the Bay of Whales — one hundred and twenty- 
six statute miles nearer to the Pole than 
Scott’s station, and with many dogs, ready 
to start his dash for the South Pole at an 
earlier date than ponies could set out. This 
knowledge might have hurried a smaller man 
into staking success upon a rival dash with 
dogs only, but Scott resolved to adhere to the 
plans he had so carefully thought out and 
proceed exactly as though this had not 
happened. Strange that history can produce 
a parallel in the case of Ross seventy-three 
years ago — only with the result that he was, 
as it were, driven off his intended beat into 
the making of his famous discoveries. 

After a day’s rest Scott organized a party, 
including two man-hauled sledges and one 




AN ENORMOUS BERG IN THE ICE-PACK. 

THIS PHOTOGRAPH ADMIRABLY SHOWS THK PICTURESQUE FORMATION' OF THESE FORMIDABLE MASSES 

OF FLOATING ICE. 




22 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 



sledge drawn by Jimmy Pig,* who alone of 
the three sent back from the depot party had 
survived the severe weather at the end of 
February. They took further supplies to 
Corner Camp. The experience of this trip 
showed that for those who were practised, 
pulling on ski was easier than pulling on foot ; 
beyond doubt very long days’ work could be 
done by men in hard condition on ski. 
Every one. it is noted down, must be prac- 
tised in this. 

At Corner Camp they hoped to have met 
Oates and Bowers on their slower march back ; 
but the day before arriving the latter were 
seen far away on the horizon making for 
home on a different track. And Scott’s team, 
hurrying back, and held up for a day by 
another blizzard, found them at last at Safety 
Camp, the ponies in sorry condition after the 
blizzard of unexampled severity for the time 
of the year, which had raged there for two 
days, burying parts of the sledges three or 
four feet under drift. 

Disasters. 

The word now was back to the shelter of 
Hut Point. The Barrier was cold, the sea- 
ice dangerous. The return was disastrous. 
First Weary Willy collapsed, and, though 
Scott and the two who stayed with him made 
every effort, he died in the night. “ It. s 
hard to have got him back so far only for 
this.” The hard fact stood out that even 
with the best of coats the ponies lose con- 
dition badly if caught in a blizzard ; and an 
expedition could not afford to let them lose 
condition at the beginning of a journey ; this 
” makes a late start necessary for next 
year.” 

This was bad ; but the events of the next 
forty-eight hours bade fair to wreck the 
expedition. The only consolation was the 
miraculous avoidance of loss of human life. 

It will be remembered that some five miles 
of sea-ice extended between the solid flank of 
the Barrier and Ilut Point, and that the pony- 
track made a large elbow over the Sound 
instead of following a straight line. What 
was the horror of the three men, on drawing 
near, to see that the dark and lowering sky 
ahead, with its mirage of broken floes, was no 
ordinary optical illusion. The sea was full 
of broken pieces of Barrier edge. Their 
thoughts flew to the ponies and dogs with 



The ponies were to have been called after the schools which 
contributed to their purchase: hut sailors are great hands at 
inventing nicknames, and these nicknames were too much for 
the official nomenclature. 



Bowers’s and Wilson’s sections of the party, 
who had been sent on while Scott tended the 
sick pony. 

Turning to follow the ice-edge, they 
suddenly discovered a working crack, dashed 
over this, and slackened pace again after a 
quarter-mile. At each new crack pace was 
put on, not slackening again till they were 
upon solid ice to the eastward on the line 
between Safety Camp and the Castle Rock 
above the Hut. Here they pitched tent, 
and, with a leader’s thoughtfulness, Scott 
sent a warning by Gran to Lieutenant Evans 
who was returning to t he depot. I fe expected 
that if either section of the party ahead had 
reached safety, whether on the Barrier or at 
Hut Point, they would immediately have sent 
a warning message to Safety ('amp, and by 
this time it should have reached them. 
Anxiety reigned. “ Some half-hour passed, 
and suddenly, with a 1 Thank God ! ’ I made 
certain that two specks in the direction of 
Pram Point were human beings.” These 
turned out to be Wilson and M cares, who had 
got the dogs to Hut Point. 'They feared the 
ponies were adrift on the sea-ice, having seen 
them with glasses from Observatory Hill, 
whereupon they had hastened out without 
breakfast. Before anything else was done 
they were given cocoa. Then Wilson espied 
a figure hurrying towards the depot from the 
west. Intercepted by the- speedy Gran, it 
turned out to be Crean, of the pony party, 
much spent with haste. 

A Thrilling Story : Adrift on the Ice-Floes. 

He brought brief word of a thrilling story, 
the fullness of which, in the deeds of rescued 
and rescuers, can only be realized by Polar 
explorers. Bowers, with Cherry Garrard and 
Crean, had duly made for Hut Point with the 
ponies. As they advanced over the sea-ice 
towards Hut Point one crack appeared after 
another, till at last they reached one which 
showed the ice to be actually on the move. 
At once they turned and hastened back but 
the ice was dri/ting out to sea ! 

The ponies behaved splendidly, jumping 
the ever-widening cracks with extraordinary 
sagacity, while their devoted drivers launched 
the sledges 1 ack over the cracks in order not 
to risk the ponies’ legs. Eventually they 
reached what looked like a safe place. Men 
and ponies were thoroughly exhausted. Camp 
was pitched, and the weary party fell asleep. 
But soon Bowers was awakened by a strange 
noise. The ice had begun to break up even 
at their camping spot ; one of their four ponies 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY . 



2 3 



had disappeared into the sea. and they were 
surrounded by water. 

Packing up hurriedly, for five long hours 
they fought their way over three-quarters of a 
mile of drifting ice, getting ponies and loads 
from floe to floe. They stuck to their charges 
like men. On them depended the hope of 
reaching the Pole, for the loss of more ponies 
and equipment must spell ruin for their 
chief’s plans. Open water cut them off from 
the Barrier, and had they been able to reach 
it there w r as small prospect of finding a way 
for the ponies up the ice-wall. And all round 
the savage killer-whales were blowing and 
snorting in the open water-spaces. 

Crean then, with great gallantry, volun- 
teered to 
make his way 
somehow to 
firm ground 
and find help. 

It was a des- 
perate adven- 
ture. He 
jumped from 
floe to floe, 
and at last, 
with the help 
of his ski- 
stick. climbed 
up the face 
of the Barrier 
from a piece 
of ice which 
touched the 
ice-cliff at the 
rightmoment. 

Cherry- 

Garrard stayed with Bow r ers at his request, 
for little Bowers would never give up his 
charge while a gleam of hope remained, and 
for a whole day these two were afloat. 

To the Rescue ! 

To the rescue, then ; but not without a 
plan. First to Safety ( amp, to take up some 
provisions and oil, and then to the scene of 
the disaster, marching carefully along the 
ice-edge. “ To my joy 1 caught sight of the 
lost party,” The two men, jumping from 
floe to floe, reached a bit of ice which the 
turn of the tide had brought to rest against 
the Barrier face. “ VVe got our Alpine rope, 
and with its help dragged the two men to 
the surface. I pitched camp at a safe 
distance from the edge, and then we all 
started salvage work. 



The ice had ceased to drift, and lay close 
and quiet against the Barrier edge. We 
got the men at 5.30 p.m., and all the sledges 
and effects on to the Barrier by 4 a.m. 
As we were getting up the last loads the ice 
showed signs of drifting off, and we saw it 
was hopeless to try and move the ponies. 
The three poor beasts had to be left on their 
floe for the moment, well fed. None of our 
party had had sleep the previous night, and 
all were dog tired. I decided we must rest, 
but turned out at 8.30.” By that time the 
floe had broken from the ice-anchors with 
which they had essayed to hold it, and had 
disappeared. Hope revived when the animals 
were descried through the glasses about a 

mile away to 
the north- 
west. They 
packed a n d 
went on at 
once. They 
found it easy 
to get down 
to the poor 
animals, and 
decided to 
rush them for 
a last chance 
of life. But 
while Scott 
searched for 
and found a 
possible wav 
u p f 0 r t h e 
animals, the 
others tried 
to leap Punch 
across a gap. The poor beast fell in, 
and eventually had to be killed. “ It was 
awful. T recalled all hands and pointed out 
my road. Bowers and Oates went out on 
it with a sledge and worked their way to the 
remaining ponies, and started back with them 
along the same track. Meanwhile, Cherry and 
I dug a road at the Barrier edge. We saved 
one pony. For a time I thought we should get 
both, but Bowers’s poor animal slipped at a 
jump and plunged into the water. We dragged 
him out on some brash ice, killer-whales all 
about us in an intense state of excitement. 
The poor animal couldn’t rise and the only 
merciful thing was to kill it.” 

Thereafter it took three days to get all 
safe to Hut Point by a circuitous route, 
and so on by the hills and the dangerous 
ice-foot. 

quarters and 



( The. next instalment will describe how the party passed their time in their winter 
how they started on their last fatal journey to the Pole.) 




Pemmicaru Biscuits. Butter. 

Cocoa. Sugar. Tea. 

THIS SLUDGING PARTY'S RATION— THE DAILY ALLOWANCE OF 
EACH MAN. 









HAL I. $Al STAKING, WITH DROPPED JAW ANlt HAMMERING HEART. 





SirCJiflords 

Gorilla 



L 



J Martin 
(Sjwaqne 

Illuslraiedbg 

WRSSTOTT 




the night that the gorilla 
arrived at Tarnley Towers Sir 
Clifford Hall gave a dinner- 
party. 

It was the first dinner-party 
he had given since he had 
received his baronetcy, and 
he was successful in persuading a goodly 
selection of the county folk round about 
Little Westerham to accept his invitations. 
There were several reasons why he obtained 
this success, the chief of which being that he 
was an exceedingly wealthy bachelor, ft 
was not clearly understood quite how he had 
made his money, but it was known that he had 
been a man of importance in South Africa. 

In appearance he was medium-sized, with 
sleek black hair, a prominent beaky nose, and 
an olive complexion. Some people said he 
was a foreigner, and others said they didn’t 
care what he was, since he gave excellent 
dinners and was quite amusing in his own way. 

On the night that the gorilla arrived his 
butler, Howard, made a discreet inquiry. 

“ This — er — hanimal, sir,” he observed, 
catching his master just before going up to 
dress. “ Where shall I put him, sir ? ” 

Sir Clifford laughed. 

•“ Don’t try and put him anywhere, Howard, 
or else he’ll put you somewhere. Remember, 
he’s a gorilla, straight from West Africa.” 

“ Really, sir ! ” Howard coughed slightly. 
“ Then he will be in a cage, sir, I presume ? ” 
“ Heaven help you, Howard, I hope so. A 
gorilla isn’t a pet monkey. I want him put 
in the billiard-room to-night in order that my 
guests may have a look at him. To-morrow 

Vol. xlvi. — 3. 



I’ll have him moved into one of the out- 
houses near the greenhouse furnace.” 

<£ Yes, sir.” 

u Tell the men to carry the cage into the 
billiard-room and put it in the corner near the 
alcove. Get everything dear and in order, 
for we’ll all come and see him after dinner. I 
expect he’ll come during dinner.” 

It was typical of Hall to startle Little 
Westerham with the advent of a gorilla. 
Some months before a neighbour had been 
talking about private menageries and telling 
anecdotes about some of those that exist in 
England, and Hall immediately decided to 
begin one himself. He began modestly with 
small mammals and a few odd species of birds. 
Then someone said his menagerie was not 
exciting enough, so Hall, after dallying with 
the idea of a tiger, came to the conclusion that 
a gorilla would be still more remarkable. 

So he put an advertisement in the papers, 
and at length received a letter from a firm of 
shipping exporters in Little Thames Street 
which ran as follows : — 

“ In reply to your advertisement, we beg 
to inform you that we have agents in various 
parts of the world who can make arrangements 
for the capture of wild animals. We should 
be pleased to undertake your commission, but 
would like to point out that a gorilla, taken 
straight from its natural haunts, such as you 
wish, will be an expensive job.” 

The firm was called Messrs. Hobrav and 
Child. 

Hall replied that cost was of no importance 
to him. He had set his heart on a gorilla, 
and it must be obtained regardless of expense. 




26 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 



Messrs. Hobray and Child, of LiCde Thames 
Street. E.C, wrote to say that the# agents 
had been communicated with and that they 
would let Sir Clifford know as soon as they 
received any news. 

Six months elapsed before Messrs. Hobray 
and Child communicated again, and Hall had 
almost forgotten about them when he received 
a letter to say that the gorilla had arrived at 
the Albert Docks, and would he please wire 
instructions to Hobray, Little Thames Street. 

It had seemed very good to Hall that the 
gorilla should arrive on the same day as he 
gave a dinner-party, and he wired to say it 
was to be sent down by motor-car, or motor- 
lorry, instantly. And then, looking again at 
the letter, his eye fastened on the name. 

Hobray ! 

It reminded him of an incident of his past. 

It was curious, but when the firm had 
written before and signed themselves Hobray 
and Child he had not noticed anything. But 
the single name struck him instantly. 
Hobray ! A strange coincidence ! Nothing 
more. And yet — it was a rare name. 

lie dismissed the unpleasant recollections 
that had arisen, and turned to the pleasures 
of the moment. 

But after speaking to Howard, his butler, 
and while he was dressing, his thoughts 
reverted again to the subject. 

“ Hobray he murmured, as he stared at his 
well-fed appearance in the mirror, “ of Little 
Thames Street. It. cannot be he. Why 
should he be in Little Thames Street ? ” 

lie laughed softly, and when he went down 
to greet his guests he felt in excellent spirits. 
The gorilla had not yet arrived, but soon all 
the guests knew that the animal was expected. 
Dinner began with conversation about gorillas, 
and monkeys in general, and several men told 
rather gruesome tales of the sagacity and 
ferocity of the brutes and of their strange 
passions and supernatural strength. Sir 
Clifford added some tales he had heard in 
South Africa, and very soon had the satis- 
faction of seeing that the women were getting 
worked up into a nervous state. When 
Howard announced that the gorilla was 
being carried into the billiard-room at that 
moment there was quite a sensation. 

“ Oh, Sir Clifford/’ exclaimed one woman, 
“ I feel so dreadfully nervous. Are you sure 
we are perfectly safe ? ” 

“ Quite,” said Hall, reassuringly. “ The 
beast is safely caged, and cannot possibly 
escape.” 

“ Well, they aren’t nice companions,” 
commented an elder!} soldier next her, “ I’ve 



heard of a man being carried off by one 
and kept tied up to a tree for days while the 
brute led him. He went mad after he was 
released.” 

The women shuddered. 

“ What are you going to do with him ? ” 
asked the soldier. 

“ Keep him in captivity,” replied Hall. 
“ I fancy he will prove a very interesting 
captive. If possible, I’ll try and tame 
him.” 

“ Well, mind he doesn’t escape and terrorize 
the whole neighbourhood. We sha’n’t be 
grateful to you if he docs. To meet a full- 
sized gorilla after dark would be an unpleasant 
event.” 

After dinner a move was made to the 
billiard-room. It lay at the end of a long 
corridor, and was approached by a little 
flight of steps. The guests streamed along 
the corridor, chatting and laughing, while 
, c ir Clifford led the way. 

The lights were fully on above the table, 
but the corners of the room were in the 
shadow. At the far end he could make out 
the outline of a large cage. Lie went towards 
it quickly. 

The cage, made of heavy iron bars, was 
about eight feet in height and length. It 
rested on a base of thick planks of wood, 
bound together with steel ribs, into which 
the iron bars were sunk and slotted at the 
end. Within the cage sat the gorilla. 

The guests thronged round, and for a 
moment there was a hush. The beast 
crouched in a corner nearest the wall. His 
head was bent forward on his breast, and the 
attitude was one of extreme dejection. But 
it was clear that he was a good specimen. 
From what could be judged as he crouched 
in his corner, he stood almost six feet in height, 
and his arms and shoulders seemed gigantic. 
His general colour was blackish, with a marked 
brownish tinge on the hair of his chest and 
head. The ears were small and the head 
elongated, with a deep groove along each side 
of the nostrils. The eyes were overhung 
by projecting skin and hair, and although 
several attempts were made to make him 
look up he refused to take any interest in 
the spectators. 

“ Poor thing ! ” exclaimed one of the 
women. “ He looks so sorry for himself. 
Has he had anything to eat ? ” 

Fruit, in the shape of pineapples and 
bananas and oranges, was thrust into the cage, 
but the huge ape made no effort to take any. 
His arms hung listlessly at his side, and his 
head remained sunken on his chest. By 



SIR CLIFFORD’S GORILLA . 



27 



bending low and looking up at him Sir 
Clifford caught the glint of the half-closed 
eyes, and started away. 

“ By Jove ! ” he exclaimed, u he’s alive all 
right. I never saw such a gleam in any 
animal’s eyes before.” 

Others looked, but the gleam had died 
away. The strange brute from the depths 
of the Congo forests had looked only at Sir 
Clifford Hall with that sudden gleam. 

A discussion was started as to how gorillas 
slept, and it was suggested it should be 
provided with a bed. The nervousness of 
the guests, passed away-, for the beast seemed 
so mournful that everyone felt touched by 
its obvious despair at being torn from its 
savage home. 

Sir Clifford wanted to christen it, but no 
one could think of a suitable name. 

“ It’s curious,” he said, at length. “ I put 
an advertisement in the papers, and then wait, 
and six months later I get a gorilla. Every- 
thing done for you — all the business of making 
an expedition, setting traps, overland car- 
riage, and endless trouble. All done in reply 
to your advertisement.” 

He wanted to stir up the beast with a stick, 
but people restrained him. 

“ If that brute loses its temper, I don’t 
think those bars will count for much,” said 
someone. “ Mind you get him into a stronger 
place to-morrow. Look at his muscles.” 

The great ape’s muscles were enormous, 
so large that even when the arms hung loosely 
they showed in great lumps under the 
hairy skin. 

“ Perhaps it is safer to leave him alone,” 
said Hall. “ But I must have another look 
at his eyes.” 

He stooped down again, and once more 
saw those dark orbs light up with a sudden 
gleam that sent a thrill down his back and 
made a faint shiver pass over him. 

“ I believe he doesn’t like me,” he ex- 
claimed. “If that isn’t pure ferocity, 1 
don’t know what it is.” 

“ He’s probably guessed that you are the 
supreme cause of his troubles,” said the 
soldier. 

People began to stroll away to the drawing- 
room, and the gorilla was left alone in its 
cage. When the room was empty it moved 
slightly and turned its head. One of its 
arms crept towards the bolt that fastened 
the door, and then, as if the beast had 
lost interest, swung back slqwly to its 
side. 

Before midnight everyone had left except 
a certain Samuel Brockman, a financier, and 



intimate friend of Sir Clifford Hall. He was 
rather like Hall in appearance. 

“ Well,” he remarked, “ I congratulate you 
on your dinner, and your guests, and .your 
baronetcy. You are getting on in the world, 
Hall.” 

“ I am,” said the new baronet, com- 
placently. 

“ You must marry now,” advised the other. 
“ Marry one of the girls round about here.” 
Sir Clifford laughed and changed the 
topic. 

“ Come and look at my gorilla before you 
go,” he said, an hour later. “ Perhaps it 
will be a little more lively by now.” 

They went down the corridor to the billiard- 
room. The lights were still burning over 
the table. In the shadowy corner loomed 
the big cage. The ape was in much the same 
position as before, huddled up in its corner, 
a huge, bulky mass that scarcely moved. 

“ Wake up,” said Hall. He thrust his fat 
hand between the bars. The gorilla stirred 
a little. “ Wake up ! ” 

He snatched his hand back just in time, 
for the beast turned on it suddenly. 

“ Ah, would you ? ” said Hall, and he 
frowned. 

“ He doesn’t show his teeth,” remarked 
Brockman. “ I thought he would bare his 
tusks if he was angry. By the way, who did 
you get him through ? ” 

Sir Clifford lit a cigar and strolled to the 
fireplace. 

“ Well, it’s rather funny, but the name of 
the firm is Hobray and Child.” 

He looked across the lighted billiard- 
table at his friend, and blew a big cloud of 
smoke. 

“ Hobray ! ” 

“ Yes. Of course, it’s not he. Merely a 
pure coincidence.’ ’ 

“ It’s an uncommon name.” 

“ I know. But what on earth could (diaries 
Hobray have to do with a shipping firm in 
Little Thames Street ? I tell, you it is some- 
one else with the same name. Besides, even 
if it was Charles Hobray, what difference does 
that make ? You know lie’s far too much 
of a coward to touch me. He knows well 
enough 1 could arrest him if I cared to.” 

“ And he could arrest you, I suppose ? ” 

“ No, he couldn’t do that,” replied the 
other quickly. “ I’ve never done anything 
legally wrong to Hobray.” 

“ But you treated him about as badly as 
you could,” said Brockman, with a chuckle. 
“ If ever a man had good reason to hate 



28 



the strand magazine. 




*‘ e BY JOVE ’ 3 HIS EXCLAIMED, ‘JIB'S AUVB ALL RIGHT. I NEVER 





SIR CUR FORD'S GORILLA 



y..™ 



SAW SUCH A GLEAM IN ANY ANfJUAt.’s EYF-S BEFORE.’ ” 






THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



another man, Hobray has good reason to 
hate you.” 

“ I admit it. I ruined him not once, but 
twice. But I did it 0" purpose. I loathe 
him — if possible more i ran he loathes me. 
If he were drowning in a pond, I would turn 
my back on him.” 

Brockman came up to the fireplace. 

“ I’ve never heard of that firm in Little 
Thames Street. How die you get into com- 
munication with them ? 5 ' 

“ By advertisement. .( advertised for a 
gorilla. For some days I had no reply. 
Then Hobray and Child wrote and offered 
their services.” 

“ In reply to your advertisement ? ” 

“ Of coursed 

Brockman looked across the room. The 
dim bulk of the great ape was visible in the 
cage, and he watched it for a moment. 

” Well, I must be off,” he said. ” I agree 
with you that even if it is Hobray I don't 
see what he can do. Unless ” 

He paused. An idea came to him, and he 
crossed the room and began to examine the 
cage carefully. 

“ What are you doing ? ” asked Hall. 

“ It occurred to me the cage might be 
insecure.” 

The two men looked at each other for a 
moment. 

“ Nonsense ! ” said Hall, but he had become 
a little pale. 

They could find nothing suspicious. The 
bars were sound. The bolts on the sliding 
door were strong and held down by catches. 
No animal could have undone them. 

Brockman laughed. 

“ It’s all right,” he said. “ It was only a 
fancy. Hobray wouldn’t do anything like 
that.” 

“ No. Hobray was always an arrant 
coward. He’d never do anything that was 
likely to be found out. He had a horror of 
being arrested. That scar on his forehead 
would always give him away.” 

Sir Clifford Hall rattled the bars of the cage. 

“ Good night, Sir Gorilla,” he cried. 
“ To-morrow you’ll be put in your permanent 
quarters, and if you don’t cheer up a bit 
I’ll have to feed you on port and minced 
chicken.” 

But the gorilla sat listlessly without moving. 

Hall waved his hand, switched off the lights, 
and followed his friend out of the room. 
After Brockman had gone off in his big motor, 
Sir Clifford smoked in his study for a few 
minutes and reflected upon the successes 
of the evening. Then recollecting he had a 



letter to write to catch the early morning 
post, he sat down at the writing-table. 

The study was a small room. The writing- 
table stood against the wall farthest from the 
dooi. Just to the right of it hung an oval 
mirror, so placed that anyone seated at the 
writing-table could see the door behind him 
reflected in it. 

Sir Clifford wrote for some time, for the 
letter was important. The house was quite 
silent. He had covered a couple of sheets, 
and was just reaching out his hand for a third 
sheet when his eye caught the mirror. 

He could see the reflection of the door dis- 
tinctly. He knew he had shut it. But now 
it was open, not very much, but sufficient to 
let him see the light from the hall outside. 
A narrow border of light was round its margin, 
and as he stared this border widened slowly. 
There was no doubt about it. The door was 
opening. 

He tried to turn in his chair, but the mirror 
held his eye. He could see a view of the hall 
now. But what was opening the door ? 
None of his servants would have come in like 
that. It could not be a current of air, for no 
draught could turn a handle. And almost 
before he saw he knew what it was, and fear 
struck him rigid. His mouth went dry and his 
tongue clave to the roof of his mouth, for 
looking round the corner of the door he 
saw the strange, narrow head of the great 
ape. 

Hall sat staring, with dropped jaw and 
hammering heart. He could not move. 
And then he saw a thing that almost made him 
mad on the spot. The hairy arm of the ape 
was stretched in through the door and one 
finger touched the electric light switch that 
was in the wall close by, and next moment the 
room was in darkness, for the door had shut. 

The gorilla was in the room. 

Hall, his senses sharpened acutely, heard 
a sound that again threatened to draw reason 
from his mind. 

The gorilla had turned the key and locked 
the door. 

Hall heard the click distinctly, and the 
faint snap as the lock went home. 

Then there was silence. Neither the man 
nor the beast stirred. But very gradually 
the power of movement came back to Hall, 
and with it the power of thinking swiftly. 
On the left side of the writing-table, let into 
the polished wood, was an electric button. 
He put out his hand in the darkness with 
infinite caution, and by accident touched the 
lid of the inkpot, which closed with a snap. 
He clenched his teeth and waited. Through 



SIR CLIFFORD'S GORILLA . 



the heavy curtains that were drawn across 
the window came a faint light, for the moon 
was shining, and as his eyes became accus- 
tomed to it he began to make out the dark 
outline of pieces of furniture around him. lie 
was still looking in the direction of the mirror, 
not daring to turn his head in case the ape 
should hear. 

The noise from the falling lid of the inkpot 
did not make the animal move. Hall could 
hear nothing, and his hand went on creeping 
steadily towards the button. His fingers 
touched the ivory surface. Hut before press- 
ing it he paused. Would the sound of the 
bell ringing in the servants’ quarters be 
audible? If so, the noise might startle the 
ape — and more than that, for the brute 
in the darkness behind him seemed to have 
an almost human knowledge, and would 
probably understand why the bell was ring- 
ing. Hall, in an agonizing effort, tried to 
remember if the bell could be heard from the 
study. 

There was a movement behind him, and 
against the faintly-luminous curtains lie saw 
the huge bulk of the gorilla. Hall pressed 
the button. The sound of the bell rang out 
clearly in the stillness of the house. 

Although his hand was trembling violently, 
he kept his finger jammed hard on the button. 
The bell, far away, went on ringing shrilly. 
Hall was suddenly caught by the shoulders 
and wrenched away from the writing-table. 
The bell stopped abruptly. 

It happened that Howard, the butler, was 
in the yard at the back of the building, giving 
the house-dogs a run before locking up, when 
the bell began ringing. He listened to it for 
a moment, and then, since the sound was 
continuous, became alarmed and hurried in- 
doors, He ran through the servants’ hall 
and looked up at the indicators. It was the 
study bell that rang so wildly, and while he 
was looking it stopped and there was silence. 

Howard went quickly up the stairs and 
reached the main hall. The lights were 
burning. He instinctively looked down the 
corridor that led to the billiard-room, and 
saw that the door at the far end was ajar. 

He stood for a moment staring. Before 
he had decided what to do he heard the study 
door open. He jumped round and saw 
the gorilla standing in the doorway, looking 
at him. 

Howard saw the study was in darkness 
behind the beast. With considerable presence 



of mind the butler sprang into ti e electric 
lift beside him, touched the key, and was 
borne swiftly to the upper storey. The 
gorilla remained where it was, and Howard 
caught a last glimpse of it watching him dully 
from the study door with an expressionless 
face. 

The butler made his way to the servants’ 
quarters and roused the two footmen. The 
three men went down by the back stairs 
and crept cautiously to the gun-room, where 
they armed themselves. Each carrying a 
gun, they stole up the hall in a little group. 

There was no sign of the gorilla. '1 1 cy 
went into the billiard-room. The cage was 
empty and its door was open. Then Howard 
led the way into the study. 

On turning up the lights they found their 
master lolling in the chair by the writing- 
table. His neck was broken. 

The keepers and grooms were roused and 
a search for the gorilla with dogs commenced. 
A broken window in the drawing-room showed 
which way the animal had escaped, and the 
dogs were soon on its trail. The head keeper 
was the first to catch sight of the beast, 
running swiftly along the crest of a low hill, 
its great frame clearly outlined against the 
starry sky. He fired, and the gorilla 
staggered. Others came up and fired, and 
the ape was seen to drop and lie still. 

They approached it, cautiously. It lay 
in a heap on the grass, a big black mass in 
the moonlight. The head keeper stirred it 
with the butt of his gun, but the beast did 
not move. It was dead. They crowded 
round it. 

Jt was the head keeper who first drew the 
attention of the others to the fact that the 
animal’s arms had a curious feel about them. 
The muscles seemed inelastic and strangely 
lumpy. Then someone tried to force the 
beast’s jaws open and failed. A lantern 
was brought, and a piece of wood wedged 
between the jaws. They opened suddenly 
with a tearing sound, and pieces of broken 
wire were seen glinting in the light. 

A gasp of astonishment went round, for 
the whole head of the beast fell back and 
they saw before them the face of a man, 
white and ghastly, with closed eyes and an 
expression of strange agony and dismay on 
his features. Across the left side of the fore- 
head ran a long white scar. 

It was in this manner that Charles Ilobray 
replied to Hall’s advertisement. 



Ilkwuilm 

v ^ /  



• ' A HOLE 
THIRTY-FIVE 
MILES LONG! 

BY TH OYLER~ 




ND’OUBTEDLY the longest 
hole ever played at golf is 
one measuring a distance of 
no less than twenty-six miles 
in a bee-line and thirty-five 
in actual play, the tee being 
at Linton Park, near Maid- 
stone. and the putting-green at Littlestone- 
on-Sca. The writer of this article was one 
of the players in this unique performance. 

A party of golfers who resided in the neigh- 
bourhood of Maidstone were returning from 
Littlestone, where they had been spending 
the day on the famous links. While waiting 
for a train at Appledore Junction a conversa- 
tion took place respecting freak golf matches, 
and the question arose as to how many strokes 
would be needed by two men playing alter- 
nately to cover the distance between Maid- 
stone and Littlestone. One of the party 
suggested that about two thousand would be 
a fair number, whereupon a popular sporting 
person replied that he was prepared to lay a 
wager of five pounds that none of those present 
could do it in that number. With very little 
time for consideration the bet was accepted 
by two members of the party, and arrange- 
ments for this extraordinary match were 
settled in less than five minutes. 

The only stipulations made by the layer of 
the wager were that the match should take 
place within three months, that the ordinary 
rules of golf should be observed, and that, as 
he was not prepared to journey on foot for 
so long a distance, an umpire should be 
appointed to keep the score. A well-known 
Cambridge undergraduate kindly offered to 
undertake this office, though had he known the 
large amount of monotonous work attached 
to it, it is very doubtful if he would have 
accepted. It was "decided to take two or 





TUli START I'KOM LINTON PARK, 

three of each of the following clubs — brassie, 
cleek, and niblick, with one driving-iron and 
about half a gallon of old balls which were 
newly painted and carried in a bag. 

The start was made in the early morning 
of a beautiful day in spring from the north 
gate of Linton Park, about three miles south 
of Maidstone, Mr. F. S. W. Cornwallis, the 
popular squire of Linton, having kindly 
given us permission to make the first part 
of our journey through his lovely park. 
The beginning was not propitious ; the 
carriage -drive, beside which our first and 
only tee was made, is of snake-like form, 
its sinuous windings extending for some 
two or three hundred yards, and the first 
drive with a brassie landed our ball in a 
rhododendron-bush, out of which we dropped 
with a penalty. The third shot was a repe- 
tition of the first, so it was thought better to 
use a cleek, which we did until the cricket- 
ground was reached, where the brassie again 
came into play. Frequent stymies by trees 
marred our progress through the lower part 
of the park, until a niblick shot carried us over 
the high wooden fence at the bottom into the 
pastures beyond. We had taken far too many 
strokes for this short distance, but now we 
were able to use our brassie more frequently, 
though rough grass often spoilt the length of 
our shots. Hedges frequently caught the ball 
and necessitated dropping, with the con- 
sequent loss of strokes. At the sixty-fifth 
shot the River Beult was reached, and our 
ball promptly disappeared in it and was lost. 
Another which we dropped found its way 
into a backwater, but was retrieved. 

At 11.25 we reached Hertsfield Bridge with 
a good brassie shot (No. 97) that carried both 
the river and road. Long grass and rushes 
here caused the niblick to be used freely. 



“MARATHON GOLF ; 1 




NEAR MAIDSTONE. 



1 HE i* 1 RST DRIVE WITH A 1IKASS1K LANDED OUR BALL IN A 
iv HO 1)0 DEN DKON - BUSH. ’ 



passenger. 

In playing off 
the railway the 
ball hit a post 
and came back, 
butwith a niblick 
we landed into the meadow on the north side, 
rassmg though some swampy ground, we 
followed the river till we reached Kelsham 
Farm, where we crossed at the 201st stroke, 
reaching Frittenden Road Bridge, and had 
to drop twice owing to the ball finding hedges. 

No. 213 brought us to Headcorn at 2.30. 
Here we stuck a stump into the ground to mark 
the last stroke and retired to the village inn 
for luncheon. On our return we found that 
our caddie had mysteriously disappeared. 
Stroke 214 was made at 3.30, and our progress 
was fairly rapid, varied by an occasional lost 
ball in a hedge or long grass. We passed 



endeavoured to keep along it with the 
deck, but soon found this impossible, as any- 
thing but a short putting stroke found the 
ditches on cither side. 

From one of these we pitched on to a heap 
of stones, and from them into a thick willow- 
bush. Hereabouts we found much trouble, 
but soon got going again and. beyond hitting 
two stiles and finding several ditches, met w ith 
no noteworthy adventures. We now readied 
a ^vore thickly-wooded country, and frequently 
hit trees, the ball sometimes cannoning off 
to a considerable distance. Fortunately the 
weather had been dry, and the fields, in which 



Blctchenden on our left, crossed 
a wdieat field, and then pitched 
into a narrow road near Avles- 
wade Farm, whence we took a 
line for the main Ten ter den road, 
which we reached at the 285th 
stroke, having just previously 
driven into a brickyard, the ball 
resting against a chicken * coop. 
Once in the road, which was 
running in the right direction, we 



Leaving Dun- 
bury Farm on 
the left, we still 
kept to the pas- 
ture land, the 
principal hazards 
being hedges and 
ditches. Hawk- 
enbury Bridge 
was reached soon 
after m i d day. 
and No. 158 was 
driven on to the 
railway at the 
spot where many 
years ago a dis- 
astrous accident 
happened to the 
boat -express in 
w h i c h Charles 
Dickens was a 



VoL xlvi. — 4. 



3-1 



THE ST RAM) MAGA'/IXE. 




BOUGH WORK FOR THE NIBLICK. 



wheat and oats were growing, had been rolled , 
so that at times we found quite good brassie 
lies even on these. One very rough arable 
field gave us much trouble, and for a time 
a heavy niblick was the favourite club. 

After crossing a road we unfortunately 
pitched into a farm-yard, but got out with 
some trouble into a pasture field, and, as it 
was nearly six o'clock, we inserted a stump 
where the ball lay and stopped for the day 
close to Crampton House Farm, between 
Biddenden and High Halden. Near here 



our carriage met us, and we drove home after 
a fair day’s work of about fourteen miles. 

On Tuesday morning we drove to Crampton 
House, where the owner of the farm greeted 
us very cordially, and our 428th shot, with a 
cleek, was a good one. Then over a hedge into 
a ditch — this kind of thing was repeated 
several times — and a pulled stroke landed us 
into a small wood, but a chopped shot with 
the niblick brought us back into a meadow. 
We drove clean through a thick hedge with a 
brassie, and then, passing over a road, we 




SOME IDEA OF Tlllt DIFFICULTIES ENCOUNTERED MAY BE GAINED FROM THE ABOVE PHOTOGRAPH. 



“ MARATHON GOLF.' 



35 



reached Moat Farm, near which we were for 
the first and only time treated as trespassers* 
Our ball had come to a st op in the middle of a 
small meadow, and the owner, rushing up, 
asked what we were doing on his premises ! 
Our reply being that we were playing golf, he 
said he must request us to go away as quickly 
as possible. Fortunately a capital brassie 
shot into a rough wheat-field took us on to 
another farm, and peace was restored. Here 
our caddie gave us some trouble, as he had 
evidently an old quarrel to settle with some 
other lad of his own age, and we had to dismiss 
him and engage another. 

A strong cross-wind made the going very 
tiring. We lost a stroke by moving the ball 
when addressing it, and then came to a high 
fence, which we hit five times before going 
through. Many troubles were now encoun- 
tered. A sliced ball pitched into a hop- 



losing a stroke. In one small, rough arable 
field we took no fewer than seven strokes, 
crossed the Tenterden and Woodchurch road, 
and, with stroke No. 561 passing Pigeon Hoo 
Farm, we entered Shirley Moor. Here, with 
the exception of losing a ball now and then in 
the network of broad ditches or in clumps 
of rushes, the going was good, and the brassie 
was brought into frequent use. Our progress 
was slow, however, owing to the dykes con- 
taining water, which were too wide to jump, 
and we frequently had to retrace our steps 
for several hundred yards in order to find the 
gateways. Consequently, instead of reaching 
Appledore at 2.30 as we intended, it was 
4.25 when, after losing a ball in the military 
canal, we put down a peg and retired to the 
village inn for a somewhat belated luncheon. 
After changing caddies, the first shot (No. 
715) after refreshments was into a ditch, and 




BALL LOST IN THE MILITARY CANAL AT APPLEDORE 



garden in which the poles were standing. 
They were too close together to allow of a 
proper swing, and the ground was rough, so 
several strokes were wasted. We were, 
however, only out of the frying-pan into the 
fire, for a niblick shot landed our ball into a 
wood, but fortunately dose to the outside, a 
good recovery being made with the next; shot. 
We then passed dose to St. Michael’s Church 
and Harbourne House, and found some good 
brassie lies in a large field of oats which had 
been quite recently rolled. As we could 
see more woods ahead, we decided to bear 
to the left and make for Inglcdon Park, which 
was reached with a good brassie shot, that 
carried the park fence, and, as this was the 
500th shot, we took an interval for refresh- 
ments. On resuming, several trees were hit, 
but the going was good. Then our course 
took us over small, rough fields and into a 
lump of poles, where we had to lift and drop, 



718 into the canal ; but the umpire’s un- 
pleasant remarks about the effect of the 
luncheon were treated with contempt. After 
much trouble with rushes and ditches we got 
on to the road, and promptly hit a house, 
the ball rebounding into the road. We then 
decided to make for Appledore Station, and 
on arriving there the ball hit the Railway 
Hotel at the 785th stroke. Here we took 
tea at 5.50, and then putted over the railway- 
crossing, having first hit the gate and bounced 
on to the rails. As we were well within our 
number of strokes we kept to the road for 
some distance, and then struck off to the right, 
through oats, beans, and pasture. No. 842 
was lost in a wide dyke, and, as 844 shared 
the same fate, we decided to halt for the night, 
as the dyke was too wide to jump. Having 
driven our peg, we started to walk to Brook- 
land Station, and fortunately caught a train 
to Lydd, where we spent the second night. 




THE ST RAM) MAGAZINE. 



3 6 




THE STAFF AT APPLE DO RE STATION ARE GREATLY INTERESTED. 




On Wednesday morning we took train to 
Brooldand and walked to Snargate, near 
which was oar starting-point, and at eight 
o’clock drove over the dyke and then had to 
walk a long distance to a bridge before we 
could cross. This happened many times, as 
the waterways are seldom sufficiently narrow 
to jump. At the 915th stroke we reached 
Brenzett. after crossing pasture, arable, oats, 
wheat, and so forth. Here a friend offered 
us sloe gin, which was not refused, and it 
greatly assisted our progress, as for some time 
the brassie shots were far and sure. We now 
crossed the main sewer which drains Romney 
Marsh ; twice our ball hit a sheep, and we 
were frequently in small ditches, but could 
generally play out. After passing the quaint 
little church of Old Romney, we found many 
rushes and reeds, 
and strokes were 
short. 

At the 1 .oooth 
stroke the ball hit 
a tree and re- 
bounded. We t hen 
made our way 
twice over the 
main sewer and 
t h r 0 u g h rough 
pasture, while the 
wooden fences, 
which arc numer- 
ous, w c r e f r 0- 
quently hit. After 
passing the ruins 
of Hope Chapel 
and leaving New 
Romney, with its 
grand old Norman 
church, on our 
right, we took a 
bee-line for the 



lofty water-tower at Littlestone, and soon got 
among the sand-hills and rabbit-holes, in one 
of which we lost a ball. 

The end was now near, as it had been 
arranged that we should hole out on the first 
green of the celebrated links. A good mashie 
shot landed us on it. a putt rested within four 
feet of the hole, and with the 1,087th stroke 
we holed out at 11.38 on the third day. 

We were, as may be supposed, very tired, 
and for several days disinclined for exertion. 
Short mashie shots and putts would have bee  
restful ; but, as it was necessary to get as far 
as possible with each stroke, they did not come 
into use. and consequently it was a prolonged 
strain on the arms, hands, and wrists. Caddies 
were a difficulty, and we had six or seven, 
each one after going a few miles wanting to 

return, as he was 
afraid of getting 
lost. 

With the aid 
of a compass and 
some knowledge 
of the district we 
kept a good 
course, but it 
can readily be 
understood that 
we had to make 
a v e r v 1 a r g e 
number of small 
d Hours to avoid 
v 0 0 d s , h dp - 
gardens, arable 
land. marshes, 
and so forth. 
The fact that 
the weather for 
some weeks 
previously had 
been fine was 



IS THE CK.NUUC OF ROMNEY MAK-S1L 




37 



MAR ATMOS GOLF.' 



In all seventeen balls were lost and sixty- 
two dropped and strokes lost. Several of the 
daily papers made amusing remarks respect- 
ing the match. One correspondent said “ it 
reminded him of those semi-legendary runs 
of the old Welsh hounds in the days when we 
arc told that they used to run a fox the whole 
of one day, then turn in for the night at the 
nearest farm-house, and take up the running 
again with the dawn ol the next day.” 




our salvation, as the corn-fields, having so 
recently been rolled, were smooth. This 
saved us many hundreds of strokes, as 
the brassie and cleek could be used with 
advantage, whereas in cases where this had 
not been done the niblick was the only club 
that could be taken. 




THE LAST STROKE (NO. 1,087) ON THE LINKS AT LITTLBSTONE. 



Joking apart, however, the 
game proved not only novel, 
but of extremely varied interest, 
much more so than is obtain- 
able on any ordinary golf-links, 
and may be highly recommended 
to any golfer who would like a. 
new experience. We should very 
much like to see a match be- 
tween champion players of forty 
miles across country, and we 
think the whole golfing world 
would note with interest the 
way in which they acquitted 
themselves in the trying cir- 
cumstances of Marathon golf. 

[Photographs by De'Ath and 
Dunk, Maidstone.] 





ByTalbotMundy 

ILLUSTRATED BY CYRUS CXJNEO 




I. 

T was on a bench in Trafalgar 
Square that Robert Furleigh 
sat one bitter February morn- 
ing. He was wedged in tightly 
between five other men, 
shabbier even and dirtier 
than he was ; and he stared 
disconsolately at his unblacked boots, and 
tried to forget the hunger that was gnawing 
at his stomach. 

Ten paces from him was a man in uniform, 
who wore a little bunch of ribbons in his cap. 
He was spotless and unrumpled as a new- 
struck silver coin. Five medals hung in a 
row on his left breast, and he possessed the 
balance and self-reliance that nothing save 
work well done can give a man. He stroked 
his moustache and faced St. Martin’s Church 
without any apparent interest, and nobody, 
judging from a first glance at him, would have 
supposed that he was there on business. 
But this was one of the feeders of Britain’s 
firing-line, and sideways, from the corner of 
his eye, he was watching Furleigh. 

“ Raw as a piece of steak,” he muttered 
to himself. <£ Now, I wonder what brought 
him down in the world. Hit the bottom 
about a week ago, I should say ; his boots 
haven’t been blacked for four or five days, 
but. they’re good ones, clothes are well-cut, 
and they fit him. Blood on his collar, and 
the tail end of a black eye about a week old. 
Um-m-m ! Was it debts, I wonder, or a 
woman ? Both, probably. Anyhow, I think 
he’ll do, and he’s ripe.” 

The derelict got up from the seat and 
craned his neck to look above the crowd, 
and the moment that he rose another derelict 
slipped into his place behind him. This n&w- 
comer was a bull-necked brute of a man, 
strong by the look of him, but he had the sly 
leer and the sneer on his face of the unsuccess- 



ful criminal. Whatever it was that Furleigh 
looked for he was disappointed, for he turned 
to sit down again with an air of even greater 
despondence on his face, and the man who 
had stolen his seat looked up and laughed 
at him, and his lips moved in some sneering 
insult. Quick as a flash Furleigh’s hand 
shot out and seized the brute’s collar ; there 
was a short struggle, a blowq a blasphemous 
oath, and the man who had no right to the 
seat went over behind it backward. 

“ Good ! ” said the recruiting - sergeant, 
still watching from his point of vantage. 
“ I’d an idea that fellow hadn’t dropped 
through the bottom yet. He’s got more 
spirit left than I thought, even. Pretty 
nearly six feet, and over fortv round the 
chest. He’ll do.” 

He started to stroll back again, quite 
casually, but this time he came to a stop 
directly in front of Furleigh and faced him, 
and stared at him deliberately. He stared 
him out of countenance, and Furleigh’s eyes 
dropped ; he felt in his pockets nervously 
for cigarettes, and finding none, looked 
down at his boots again. Instantly the 
recruiting-sergeant produced a packet, and 
held it out towards him 

“ Hands soft as a woman’s,” he thought, 
as his quarry reached out eagerly and took 
one. “ Pie’ll mould all right, this one 
will, but he'll suffer. Here, take the lot, 
won’t you ? ” he said, tossing him the 
packet. 

His quarry thanked him and blew smoke 
luxuriously through his nose. He seemed to 
think that the incident was closed, for he 
once more dropped his eyes and sank his 
chin on to his chest and lapsed into discon- 
solate reverie. But the sergeant had not 
finished with him. 

“ You’re looking glum,” he said, suddenly. 
“ What’s wrong ? ” 





THREE HELIOS. 




“ Everything/* said the outcast, looking 
up, and then standing up. 

The sergeant stepped back a pace. His 
uniform was immaculately clean, and this 
sorry-looking stranger was not. 

“ The world seems pretty good to me ” 
he said, pushing his chest out like a pouter 
pigeon. 

“ If you were as hungry as I am,” said 
Furleigh, “ you’d think otherwise.” 

“ Cold morning given you an appetite, 
eh ? So it has me.” 

“ Well, then, go and eat, and be hanged to 
you. Don’t, stand here and talk to me about 
it, or I shall go mad.” 

“ Come along. Come and eat with me. 
I’ll buy you a breakfast.” 

Every other occupant of that bench pricked 
up his ears. Two of the men smiled cunningly, 
one swore savagely under his breath, and the 
other two looked from Furleigh to the sergeant 



and back again, and nodded knowingly. 
But there was nothing but quite innocent 
amazement in Furleigh’s voice. 

“ That’s very decent of you, sergeant,” he 
said, in accents that v,cre foreign to the 
underworld. 

As they walked side by side towards the 
little eating-house, tucked away in a quiet 
corner not far from St. Martin’s Church, 
Furleigh glanced nervously from side 
to side. The sergeant looked up at him 
curiously. 

“ Seem a little strange to be going to 
breakfast with a non-com. ? ” he asked. 

“Just a little,” answered Furleigh, and 
the sergeant nodded. 

In spite of his vaunted appetite, the ser- 
geant ate little. He sat and watched his 
man and said nothing, waiting with an art 
that, was learned in war for the psychological 
moment in which to strike. 



4 ° 



THE STRAXD MAGAZIXE . 



“ Have you had enough ? ” asked the ser- 
geant, at last. 

“ Plenty, thanks,” said Furleigh. 

“ Enough of wandering the streets, I 
mean ? ** 

“ Yes. I’ve had more than enough of 
that.” 

“ Then why do it ? ” 

Furleigh stared at him. It seemed like 
the question of a madman. 

“ I’ve been trying hard to get up again 
ever since I ” 

“ You’ve been trying in the wrong wav, 
then. Look at me. I was down and out 
once, and I wasted a lot of time wandering 
about asking folks to help me. Some of 
’em did, a little ; but most didn’t. So 1 did 
what I thought was worse than suicide ; 
1 went off and enlisted. Look at me now. 
I’ve money in the bank, and a good coat to 
my back, and three square meals a day, 
and I shall have a pension when I’m through. 
I’ve seen quite a little of the world, too, 
and had a corking good time of it.” Furleigh 
was silent now, staring down at the table 
in front of him. The sergeant tried another 
line of argument. “ There’s nobody can 
accuse me of being anything but what I am, 
either,” he asserted. “ I’ve a record of 
twenty years’ service behind me, every day 
of it accounted for, and that’s more than 
most can say. When a man’s down and 
out, anybody can call him a rotter, and 
he can’t disprove it as a rule.” 

Furleigh winced. 

“ Unless he’s been in the army for a spell. 
Then he can push his written record under 
the nose of anyone that accuses him ! ” 

Furleigh still said nothing ; he still stared 
at the dirty tablecloth, with his hands deep 
down in his empty pockets and a look of 
indecision on his face. But the sergeant 
had not yet exhausted his list of lures. 

<£ Nobody knows who I was before 1 
joined,” he said, darkly, as though he were 
hiding some thrilling secret. 4k I gave my 
real name, because it’s against the law not 
to, and I wasn’t taking any chances.” 

Furleigh seemed interested now. 

“ Is that a fact ? Can’t a man enlist under 
an assumed name ? ” 

“ Some of ’em do, but it’s against the 
regulations, and there’s apt to be trouble if 
it’s ever discovered. What’s your name, 
now ? ” 

“ Furleigh.” 

“ I know half-a-dozen men of your name ! ” 
lied the sergeant, promptly. “ There’s one 
in the First Life Guards, one in the Middlesex, 



one in the I). L. I. Why, T must know a 
dozen of them ! ” 

“ Come along, then,” said Furleigh. “ I’ll 
enlist.” 

“ And you'll be glad of it,” the sergeant 
answered. 

An hour or two later Furleigh had been 
taken before a magistrate, and had kissed 
the Book, and had sworn to serve Her 
Majesty the Queen and obey her officers in 
Great Britain, or abroad, or in the Dominions 
beyond the seas, without question — loyally 
— and to the death. 

“ Now listen,” said the recruiting-sergeant, 
when the oath was taken and they were out on 
the street again. “ You’ve been a gentle- 
man. Forget it ! You’ve given orders all 
your life instead of taking ’em. Forget it ! 
You’re a new boy in a new school now l And 
don’t you forget that ! Be civil, obey orders 
at the jump, grin when you don’t like a thing, 
keep your fists behind you and your tongue in 
your head, and let the canteen alone ; then 
you’ll be all right.” 

II. 

It was all very well for the recruiting-ser- 
geant to give advice to Robert Furleigh. The 
advice was good, but he found that following 
it meant remoulding a life-long point of view. 
He was housed in a barrack-room with nine- 
teen other men any one of whom would have 
blacked his boots a month ago and have been 
proud to do it ; and the temptation to secure 
their respect by hinting darkly at influence 
and relations high up in the service was too 
insistent to be withstood. So at the very start 
he fell the way that all fools fall, and derision 
and abuse met him whichever way lie turned. 
He found himself dubbed a 41 ranker.” 

In the end, to get away from his com- 
rades’ roasting, he took a signalling course, 
and there his education helped him. The 
Morse Code that was a thing of mystery to 
most recruits was almost like an open book 
to him. But he had already broken every 
single rule of conduct that the recruiting- 
sergeant had laid down for him. He had made 
the amazing discovery that cads can use their 
fists, and he had fought half of the first-year 
men in the. regiment, and been licked by most 
of them. Those that had got the better of 
him bullied him on the strength of it, and the 
men that he had licked were training and 
hardening their muscles with the laudable 
desire of one day getting even. He had no 
friends. 

Even among the signallers he was unpopu- 
lar, so his proficiency with the heliograph 



THREE HELIOS . 



4T 



stood him in very little stead. Officers are 
chary of recommending for promotion a man 
who has earned the whole-hearted contempt 
of two-thirds of the regiment and the hatred 
of the rest. Furlcigh remained a private, 
while younger men than he, who had been 
bred in the slums of London, and whose 
education began and ended with the three 
R’s, rose to be lance-corporals — and gave him 
orders and abuse. 

The iron of it sank deep into his soul, and 
he grew worse tempered than he had ever 
been, and sulky and morose. Also — and that 
was the last and the most important of the 
recruiting- sergeant’s rules— he took to drink ; 
the canteen got his pay and what was left of 
his self-respect. The cells were the next 
acquaintance that he made. Every pay-day, 
almost, found him sentenced to them for 
“ drunk and resisting the guard,” or “ drunk 
and disorderly,” or just plain, ordinary drunk. 
It was in the cells that light dawned on him 
in the shape of Copeland, newly joined. 

Second-lieutenant Copeland looked through 
the iron-barred window of the cell, and recog- 
nition was mutual and instant. Fifteen 
minutes later the cell door opened to admit 
Copeland, and the sentry marched away to 
the end of the flagged promenade in front, 
and stood there out of ear-shot. 

44 Are you in under your right name ? ” 
asked Copeland. 

44 Yes,” said Furleigh. 

“ Were you after a commission ? ” 

“ No,” said Furleigh. 

44 Well, even if you had been, you’ve lost 
all chance of getting it now, of course ; so 
there’s no use in talking about that. Don’t 
you think you’d better purchase your dis- 
charge, Furleigh ? Don’t you think you 
might do better out of the army ? I’d give 
you the money myself, and give you some- 
thing else besides to start you after vou’ve 
left.” 

Now, if human nature were not what it is 
known to be — quite inexplicable, and if every 
man had not some different kink in him that 
leads by devious byways to his pride, this 
story might seem incredible. 

44 I suppose you don’t want me in your 
half-company ? ” asked Furleigh. 

44 Candidly, 1 don’t.” 

“ Does anybody else know that you’ve 
recognized me?” 

44 Not a soul.” 

44 Very well, then; don’t let them. Keep 
it dark, and keep me in your half-company.” 

44 But look here, Furleigh ! See sense ! 
The thing’s impossible ! I can’t carry on, 

Vol. xlvi. — 5. 



and say nothing, and let you blackmail me, 
for that’s what, it will amount to 1 ” 

44 Blackmail you ! You mean little sneak ! 
If I’d wanted to blackmail you, d’you think 
that I’d have not done it before this ? We 
were both of us to blame for that business, 
but T got found out and took the blame, and 
you, you dirty little underhanded trades- 
man’s son, you let me take it, didn’t you, 
and said nothing ? Now you want to buy 
me out of the army, do you, and get me out 
of sight again, and out of mind ? Try if you 
dare ! Hold your tongue, Copeland, and 
I’ll hold mine.” 

“ But, Furleigh ” 

44 That’s all ! ” said Furleigh. 

44 But, you know, 1 sha’n’t be able to do 
you any favours ; I shall have to treat you 
the same as all the rest.” 

44 If you so much as dare to show me a 
single favour I’ll expose you that minute ! ” 

44 But ” 

Furleigh came one pace nearer, and spoke 
to him through clenched teeth. 

44 I want you to clearly understand,” he 
said, 44 that what I say now is final. Leave 
the army yourself, if you like ; but don’t 
you dare to try to get me out of it, or even to 
get me transferred. And don’t you dare to 
let anybody know who I am, or what you 
know 7 about me, or what I know about you. 
And if you elect to stay in the army, don’t 
you dare to treat me differently to the rest. 
I’ll take no favours of any kind from a little 
cad like you ! ” 

That incident did the trick for Furleigh. 
He came out of cells, two clays later, a changed 
man, and the canteen saw no more of him. 
He was determined to show Copeland how a 
gentleman behaved under stress of circum- 
stances, and the delight he took in doing it 
gave him something to live for, and changed 
his whole appearance and his point of view 
and his relation to the service. 

lie took a keen delight now in every form 
of soldiering ; and because Copeland, who 
had no birth at ah to speak of, was making 
himself unpopular by his snobbery among 
his brother officers, Furleigh chose to forget 
his birth and prove that a gentleman can 
survive any form of disaster with credit to 
himself. 

His eyes never met Copeland’s eyes, save 
in the course of duty, and then only as they 
would have met another officer’s. He placed 
no difficulties in Copeland's way ; he obeyed 
his orders, and he neither avoided him nor 
got in the way of him. He behaved to him 
exactly as he did to any other officer — that 



42 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



is to say, civilly and with all the power of 
prompt obedience he had in him. 

And as the weeks wore by and Furleigh’s 
efficiency increased, the regiment began to 
perceive the change in him. Men who had 
scorned him a month ago now shared their 
tobacco with him and slapped him on the 
back ; men who had objected to sleeping in 
the next cot to him now sat on his bed and 
talked to him ; and officers who had cast him 
prev ously for every conceivable form of 
fatigue, began to watch him now from another 
point of view. Six months later he was made 
lance-corporal. When war broke out and 
the regiment was ordered overseas, he was a 
corporal already. And when the regiment 
reached South Africa and the shifting and 
confusion of campaign had begun, Furleigh 
was sergeant-signaller. Copeland was second 
lieutenant still, and likely to remain one ; 
Furleigh’s behaviour had got on his nerves, 
and he was silent and morose and distrusted 
and unpopular. 

III. 

A signaller has bis full share of all the hard 
work that may be going, and positively no 
glory whatever, at the stage of a war when 
crawling columns are evolving out of chaos 
and the skyline is rendered hazy with the 
dust of manoeuvring brigades. Furleigh sat, 
or stood, and sweated at his helio while every- 
body lost his temper, and nobody knew for 
ten consecutive minutes who was which, nor 
who commanded what, nor what orders were, 
nor why. And during that time he saw little 
or nothing of Second-lieutenant Copeland. 

But all this while Copeland was exercising 
influence ; and because his regiment had no 
use for him, every application that he made 
for a transfer to some other detail was warmly 
seconded by his colonel ; and in the end some- 
body commanding found time to scrawl his 
signature across a piece of paper that sent 
Copeland hurrying to the front. 

Furleigh went too, but for other reasons. 
An order had come down from the fighting- 
line that the most efficient signallers should 
be sent forward immediately ; and the first 
to go was the man who had toiled from day- 
light until dusk ever since he landed, and 
had made himself and proved himself the 
most accurate and quickest signaller at the 
base. The same train took both of them. 
Copeland travelled first-class, in a carriage 
reserved for the use of officers ; he went on 
importunity and influence. Furleigh went 
in an open truck, in among the cartridge- 
boxes, sent forward on his merits. 



Copeland, out on the platform to stretch 
himself at a wayside station, beheld Furleigh 
sprawling in the truck and cursed the sight of 
him. Furleigh saw him too, but took no 
notice. And then, after an almost inter- 
minable journey, the train disgorged them at 
the front, and once again they lost sight of 
one another for a while. 

They went under fire together the next 
time that they met ; and then the crisis came. 
Copeland commanded a little body of scouts, 
some five-and-twenty of them, who had orders 
to push forward and get in touch with a sup- 
posed-to-be-retreating enemy. And along 
with the outfit marched Sergeant Furleigh, 
smoking his pipe contentedly beside a mule 
that bore the helio. In front were the five- 
and-twenty, spread out like furlong posts 
across the veldt. Fifty paces or more behind 
them, and at an equal distance from either 
end of the extended line, walked Copeland, 
and behind him, two hundred yards or more, 
came Furleigh. 

They reached a river, where the only ford 
was overlooked by jagged kopjes. There 
the scouts lay down and watched a while. 
Nothing moved on the far side and there 
were no signs of any enemy, so Copeland 
gave an order, and one by one, with their 
rifles held above their heads, the scouts 
crossed over. On the far side they lay down 
in a cluster and waited for their officer. Then 
Furleigh led the mule across, and Copeland 
rode it, cursing because the water wetted 
his legs, for every now and then the mule 
stumbled or put a foot wrong, and he had to 
sit cross-saddle in order to keep his seat. 

When they reached the far side, one of 
the scouts reported having seen a man’s 
head on the near horizon, it had bobbed up 
for a second and disappeared again. Only 
one had seen it, but he was positive 
that he had not been mistaken. Copeland 
turned to Furleigh. 

“ D’you see that little kopje over there ? 
The one with the hollow on this side of it ? ” 

“ Yes, sir,” said Furleigh. 

“ Well, take your helio there, and set it 
up. If the enemy do happen to be in front, 
you’ll be under cover and out of their sight. 
I suppose you can signal the rear from 
there ? ” 

Furleigh glanced upward at the sun. 

“ Yes, sir,” he said. 

“ Go ahead, then, and stand by in readiness 
tj signal.” 

Furleigh led off the mule, leading him 
along in the shallow water below the river- 
bank until lie had the kopje he was aiming 



THREE HELIOS. 



43 



for between him and the supposititious 
enemy ; then he made a break for it, and 
reached the hollow behind the kopje at the 

run. 

“ Brave man ! ” said Copeland, with a 
sneer, and one of the five-and-twenty 
laughed. 

The rest glanced from one to the other 
and said nothing ; they were scouts, not 
humorists. Copeland stood up and watched 
the skyline for five minutes through his 
glasses, sweeping it slowly from left to 
right. 

“ There’s nothing there,” he said, with 
an air of conviction. “ Forward, to that 
kopje in front. We shall get a better view 
from there, and then I’ll decide what to do 
next.” 

u Begging your pardon, sir ” said a 

sergeant, a twelve-year, two-medal man. 

“ Hold your tongue,” commanded Cope- 
land. “ I’m in command here.” 

The scouts glanced at each other again, 
but they had to obey his order, and they 
advanced in a body across the open to the 
kopje. 

They had nearly reached it when a shot 
rang out — one solitary shot that hit nobody. 
But that shot was a signal. A second later 
came a volley, sudden and sharp and shorn 
off like the sound of one gun firing, and then 
another volley, and another ; then independent 
firing, that rattled for a moment, and grew 
less, and died down into nothing, ending with 
one solitary shot. 

Furleigh, peering round the corner of his 
shelter, could see nothing; he supposed that 
the scouts had taken cover. So he turned to 
his helio again and got ready to transmit 
the message that Copeland would surely 
send him in a minute or two. But no one 
came back with any order. 

He sent a flash or two, to call the attention 
of the column that was still out of sight 
beyond the skyline to the rear, and after a 
minute he caught the answering flash. 

“ Stand by,” he signalled. “ Information 
coming ! ” 

“ Ready ! ” came the answer. 

Then, from the corner of his eye, he 
caught another flash, over to the left, beside 
him. A glance over there showed him 
another helio, manned by a fellow with a 
shaggy beard. It was a Boer helio, and it 
was signalling the British column. Furleigh 
and his instrument were out of sight of the 
enemy, and so was the mule, for a little 
ragged escarpment ran down from the kopje 
that concealed him and formed a wedge- 



shaped screen between bi n and the Boers. 
He had to stand on tip-toe and peer above 
it in order to see the man who signalled. 
So he drew back his helio a little farther 
towards the kopje and hobbled the mule 
more carefully and watched, trying to read 
the Boer flashes. 

It proved difficult. He could read easily 
enough what the British signallers answered ; 
but they, too, seemed to find it hard to 
understand. 

“ Repeat ! ” they kept on signalling. 
“ Repeat 1 Not understood ! ” 

Either the Boer was a beginner at the 
instrument or else his knowledge of English 
was at fault. 

Suddenly Furle : gh heard a noise behind him, 
to his right, and he turned and saw Cope- 
land creeping towards him on his stomach. 
The moment he reached the little hollow 
in the shelter of the kopje Copeland rose 
to his feet. He was white as a sheet and 
trembling, but there was no sign of a wound 
on him. 

“ Quick ! Out of this ! ” said Copeland. 
“ The Boers are behind that hill, several 
thousands of them. They ambuscaded us. 
Shot down every single man ! ” 

(l Except you ? ” suggested Furleigh. 

But the irony missed ; Copeland was too 
excited. 

“ The Boers have got a helio on that hill,” 
said Furleigh, quite calmly. “ They’re 
signalling the column. I can’t read what 
they’re saying, but our men don’t seem able 
to read it either.” 

“ Who cares what they’re saying ! Loose 
that mule i Come on, hurry ! I’ll ride him, 
and you take hold of the stirrup ! ” 

Furleigh loosed the mule. 

“ All ready, sir ! ” he said. 

There was a pronounced accentuation on 
the “ sir.” 

Copeland mounted. 

“ Come on ! ” he ordered. <£ Catch hold ; 
hurry up ! ” 

“ One minute,” said Furleigh, still holding 
to the rein. “If you get through, tell ’em 
that that wasn’t my helio flashing ; d’you 
understand, SIR ? ” 

“ Let go of that rein, will you, you fool ! ” 

The mule milled round and round, for 
Furleigh held it, and Copeland was kicking 
with both of his heels. Officers command- 
ing scouts were armed with rifles like the 
rest, to save them from being picked off by 
the enemy ; Copeland had dropped his rifle, 
and he had no weapon of any kind, but he 
felt for his sword now instinctively. 



44 



7 TIE STRAND MAGAZINE 




A LUMBERING, BLUNDERING, BULL-PLUCKY BRITISH COLUMN WAS ADVANCING WITH 



THREE HELIOS . 



45 




rs EYES SHUT INTO PLANNED, MARKED-OUT, CALCULATED, AMBUSCADED DEATH! 









' W 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



46 

Furleigh laughed at him, and Copeland 
struck out with his fist and missed. 

Once again Furleigh laughed, but he 
loosed the rein, and hit the mule a resound- 
ing wallop with his open palm. In went 
Copeland’s heels, and off went the mule at an 
awkward gallop. Furleigh stood where he 
was, with a grim smile on his face, watching. 
He saw that Copeland never once looked 
round. 

The mule plunged into the river under 
Copeland’s urging, and began to wallow and 
plunge across the ford. It was not until that 
moment that the Boers caught sight of him ; 
then ten men opened fire, and the men who 
were clustered round the helio stopped what 
they were doing to watch. 

The mule was by no means a steady target, 
and he was half-way over before the} 7 hit him ; 
he fell then, though, in a heap, head under, 
and Copeland slipped off his back and began 
to wade. Never once looking back, he 
plunged, pushing, wallowing forward, diving 
head and shoulders under for so long as he 
could hold his breath, bobbing up again for 
an instant, to be greeted with a volley that 
spattered round him, and then diving again 
and struggling forward. 

He reached the bank, unhit apparently, 
and he lay low there in the shallow water 
for five minutes. Then Furleigh saw him 
make a spring for it and climb the bank ; a 
long-range volley greeted him the moment 
that he showed himself, and as he reached 
the top he fell forward into the long grass 
and lay there. It was difficult to judge at 
that long distance, but it seemed to Furleigh 
that he had not been hit ; the Boers, though, 
thought otherwise, for they left off firing. 

Furleigh watched for a little while, but 
saw no sign of movement on the far bank, 
so he turned his attention to the signalling 
again. The flashes had resumed, and there 
was another man on the helio now, who 
seemed more of an adept at it. Furleigh 
crawled down towards the river, and lay 
still between two ant-hills ; from that angle 
he could read the flashes better. 

Flick-flick! went the Boer helio. “General 
Commanding,” read Furleigh from where he 
lay, and back came the answering flash : — 

Flick- flick-flick ! u Enemy retired some 
hours ago. Ford easy and undefended. 
Have reconnoitred all positions on far side. 
No signs of enemy except litter along line of 
their retreat.” 

“ Press forward and report,” came back 
the answer. 

From where Furleigh lay he could see the 



heads of more than a thousand Boer marks- 
men, peeping above a ridge to stare at a 
heavy dust-cloud that began to show on the 
far horizon. And from where the dust-cloud 
was there came the angry rumble of an army. 
A lumbering, blundering, bull-plucky British 
column was advancing with its eyes shut into 
planned, marked-out, calculated, ambus- 
caded death ! 

Flick-flick ! went the helio. Flash- flash ! 
came the answer. And the Boer heads dis- 
appeared again, and the Boer signallers un- 
shipped their instrument and hid it behind 
the ridge. 

Back crawled Furleigh to his hollow where 
the helio stood. If ever a man faced certain 
death, he did then ; but he faced it laughing. 
When he reached the hollow he drew out his 
pipe and filled and lit it. He was out of sight, 
he knew, and he could take his time about 
beginning ; but once he started he would have 
to hurry, for there were Boers in plenty 
within three hundred yards of him. So he 
smoked for five full minutes, while he thought ; 
there was going to be no room for mistakes. 

Then quietly, and almost casually, he stood 
up behind his instrument, and his fingers 
clutched the key. 

“ General Commanding,” he signalled, quite 
steadily and without a tremor ; “ General 
Commanding ” — “ General Commanding ” — 
“ Gen ” 

It seemed like an hour to him before the 
answer came ; and there were not even seconds 
to lose ! 

“ Last messages false ! ” he signalled. 
“ Enemy ambuscaded far side of ford in force. 
Scouts surprised and killed. Enemy using 
their helio to draw you into trap. Do you 
understand ? ” 

Another hour followed, that was really 
sixty seconds. Then : — 

“ Repeat ! ” came the answering signal. 

Furleigh heard sounds behind him — nailed 
boots hurrying over rocks, and a gruff com- 
mand in Dutch. The Boers had seen his 
signals ! But he kept his eyes fixed steadily 
on the sky in front of him, and repeated his 
signal word for word. 

“ To draw you into a trap,” he signalled. 

“ Do you under ” And a man peered 

over the edge of the kopje behind him and a 
rifle-barrel flashed for a second in the sun- 
light. There came a sharp report and another 
flash — and Furleigh dropped down in a heap 
where he had stood. Another Boer leaned 
over then and put another bullet into him, to 
make quite sure. 

The British column signalled and signalled, 



THREE HELIOS . 



47 




but got no answer. The Boers lay low and 
waited, and the cloud of dust drew nearer. 
But out of it, after a while, there came another 
cloud — a little one, that rose higher and moved 
three times as fast. And three thousand 
yards beyond the ford three batteries of 
horse artillery swung round to “ Action 
Front.” 

Shrapnel were the scouts this time — round 
iron balls that shrieked and sang among the 
kopjes, ricochetting off the rocks and seeking 
out what lay there. Then came a real retreat, 
hurried along by pom-pom shells and maxims 
and very long-range rifle-fire. And after 
that a stretcher picked up Furleigh and bore 



him to the rear. Copeland rose from the 
grass and walked back, and reported to the 
general officer commanding. 

“ Who are you ? ” asked the general. 

“ Copeland, sir. O.C. advanced scouting- 
party.” 

“ Where is your command ? ” 

“ All killed, sir.” 

“ Excepting you, eh ? ” 

Copeland said nothing. 

“ How did you come to report the crossing 
safe and undefended ? ” 

“ I did not, sir. The sergeant-signaller did 
that. As I lay among the grass on this side 
of the river, spent, sir, you’ll understand, 1 



43 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 




“THE -BUTLER HANDED HIM AN OFFICIAL-LOOKING ENVELOPE / 5 



saw him standing over there and flashing 
signals.” 

“Did you at any time give him signals to 
send after you were attacked ? ” 

“ No, sir. I had no opportunity.” 

“ How so ? ” 

“ Could not get near him, sir.” 

“ How did you cross the river ? ” 

Copeland hesitated. He had no idea who 
had seen him or who had not, and there 
was the dead mule lying in the river for 
damning evidence against him. 

“ I started on the mule ; the enemy shot 
that, and then I swam and waded.” 

“ And the mule, where did you get that 
from ? ” 

Copeland turned red and hesitated. 

“You may consider yourself under arrest, 
Mr. Copeland,” said the general, slowly and 
deliberately. “ I’ll have your conduct in 
this matter investigated at once.” 

Copeland saluted and started to walk 
slowly to the rear, trying hard to think of 



some way to save his reputation, and as 
he walked he was recognized by a corporal 
of Yeomanry, who had until lately been 
teller in a London bank. The corporal made 
no sign, and neither did Copeland, but each 
man recognized the other. Copeland con- 
tinued his march to the rear, and the cor- 
poral rode forward to where the general 
stood. There he halted, to the rear of him, 
and waited for further orders. 

Nine stretchers passed, one of them in 
front and the rest all in a cluster behind it. 
The general turned his head. 

“ Corporal,” he ordered, “ find out who 
are on those stretchers.” 

And the corporal dismounted and stopped 
the stretcher-bearers. The first man that he 
looked at, on the stretcher that was in front, 
was Robert Furleigh, and the corporal 
recognized him. He lifted the skirt of his 
open tunic, though, and looked at the name on 
it, to make absolutely sure. 

“ Is he alive ? ” he asked. 



THREE HELIOS . 



49 



“ Yes, hit in two places. But he’s got a 
chance.” 

The corporal reported his discovery, and 
the general changed colour slightly under the 
dark sunburn. He, too, seemed anxious to 
make sure, lor he walked up to the stretcher 
and stooped over it. 

“ Take this man’s deposition the moment 
he regains consciousness,” he ordered. a And 
let me have it immediately.” 

Then he mounted and rode forward to 
attend to his country’s business. His own 
could wait. 

IV. 

Through the whole of the weary, jolting, 
bumping journey to the base Furleigh lay 
on his back in the ambulance and groaned. 
He had had the good fortune to be hit at 
a time when there were no other wounded 
men to deal with, so the surgeons had had 
time to spare for him. They saved his life, 
but they did nothing to spare his feelings. 
He was to be sent home, they told him, 
on the first home-going troopship, and in all 
likelihood he would be invalided from the 
army. 

And what was a man to do, he wondered, 
who knew no trade, and had nobody who 
cared a hang about him, and nothing but a 
few pounds of wound-money to fall back 
upon ? 

He had been a fool, he thought, as usual. 
And fooled by Copeland once again. Why 
hadn’t he taken that mule and ridden away, 
as that cad Copeland did ? He could have 
left Copeland to his fate then — and serve 
him right ! Why hadn’t he ? Because then 
he would have been a cad, like Copeland. 

He thought it over still more on board 
the troopship going home, and in the end 
he began to feel almost satisfied. He had 
been faced with an ugly proposition, and 
he had not hesitated. He had played the 
game. What else mattered ? 

But the long days of convalescence in 
Netley Hospital brought gloom with them 
again. Discha-ge from the army was each 
day twenty-four hours nearer, and London 
loomed big, with the friendless streets and 
the benches, and the hurrying, careless 
crowds again. Nobody visited him. Pie had 
plenty of time to think. And not one of the 
plans he thought of brought him a single 
gleam of hope. 

Then one day they did bring in a visitor 
to see him, and he turned over on his cot, 
a little wearily, expecting to see a missionary. 



or some semi-professional ward-visitor, who 
would bore him with well-intentioned plati- 
tudes. But he gasped and turned even 
whiter than his wound had left him when he 
saw who stood beside his bed. 

“ Good morning, Mr. Robert, sir,” said 
a well-remembered voice. 

“ You, Blades ! Have you left, then ? ” 

“ No, sir; I’m still your father’s butler.” 

“ What brought you here ? ” 

“ Your father’s letter, sir, and the first 
train I could catch. He ordered me to 
bring you this by hand.” 

The butler handed him an official-looking 
envelope, and Furleigh seized it and tore 
it open with fingers that twitched and 
trembled. 

It was dated from General Headquarters, 
and ran ; — 

Dear Bob, — Blades will bring you this, and by 
this same mail he will receive my orders to wait 
on you, and convey you home the moment you are 
well enough to leave the hospital. When I ordered 
you out of the house, it: appears that I acted under 
a false impression. You were in the wrong, for you 
put your name on a promissory note in spite of my 
orders, and in spite of your own promise not to do 
so. I had no idea, though, that Mr. Copeland had 
most of the money, that you repaid your share of 
it to him, and that it was he, not you, who failed 
to meet it. T suppose that in my anger I gave you 
no opportunity to explain ; or possibly your own 
misguided sense of honour prevented you. In any 
case, vour fault was not so great: as I supposed, and 
you have been punished for it quite enough. You 
are welcome home again. 

You will possibly be interested to learn that Mr. 
Copeland has left ^ the army. Her Majesty having 
no further use for his services. The coincidence of 
my receiving your signals direct, coupled with the 
certainty that you could not have known that l was 
with that column, and the opportunity that I had 
to investigate the circumstances on the spot and 
reconstruct what happened from the evidence directly 
afterwards, was a piece of wonderful good fortune. 

I will attend to the matter of your honourable 
discharge from the army, as vou will readily under- 
stand that I could not, in all the circumstances, 
possibly recommend you for promotion. What you 
did, however, shall be considered as having blotted 
out the past. 

Your affectionate father, 

W HITTING HAME FlTRLET G II , 
General Commanding, Eastern Transvaal. 

“ Tt’s all over the county, sir.” said 
Blades. “ Your father’s written home and 
told pretty near everyone all about it, and 
how you’re his heir again. We’re all glad, 
sir ! ” 

“ Gad. Blades ! The old man doesn't do 
things bv halves, does he ? ” 

“No/ sir,” said Blades, “he don’t. An’ 
if you asked me, his son don’t either. Seems 
it runs in the family.” 



Vol. xlvi. — 6. 



<3 Civ T V yov I 

The greatest mystery of the sea is, of course, the case of the Marie Celeste, which has defied all attempts 
at solution for forty years. Nevertheless, some solution there must be, and it has occurred to us to 
reprint the story (from the Nautical Magazine) and to invite eminent, writers, who are celebrated for their 
ingenuity in disentangling mysteries, to suggest solutions. We have pleasure in publishing most 
ingenious conjectures by Sir A. Conan Dovle, -Mr. Arthur Morrison, Mr. Barry Pain, Mr. Morley Roberts, 
and Mr. Horace Anneslcy Vachell. Tt is possible that the explanation of this strange mystery is really 
quite simple, and if some plausible solution should occur to any of our readers we shall be very glad to 
hear from them, and to publish and pay for anything we may decide to use. 



HAT is the greatest mystery 
of the sea ? Ask any deep- 
water sailor that question, and 
the chances are that he. will 
answer — the Marie Celeste. 
Why was she abandoned, and 
what became of her crew ? These are riddles 
which for forty years have been discussed 
without result by the seamen of the world. 
In this tragedy one looks in vain for a clue to 
a natural or supernatural explanation. 

The circumstances in which the brig 
Marie Celeste was found deserted in mid- 
ocean are matters of official record, but that 
only. No trace of any member of the ship’s 
company of thirteen souls has ever been 
found. Thirteen, that unlucky number ! 

Had that anything to do with it ? ” asks 
the superstitiously-inclined sailor. 

To-day, many years after the disaster, we 
know practically no more about it than did 
the skipper who found the deserted ship. 
There is ample room for imagination, for 
from the recorded facts no one has been able 
to construct even a tenable theory. However, 
here are the facts in the case, all that has 
been learned after forty years. 

Why was the brig Marie Celeste abandoned ? 
Not one of the thirteen souls who sailed from 
New York has ever returned to tell how or 
why they fled in haste from the vessel. YV ith 
all her boats intact, and well stocked with 



provisions, the brig was found sailing in the 
Atlantic a day after she was abandoned. 

Early in September, 1872. Captain Hen 
Griggs, a New Englander, stood on an East 
River wharf, in New York, watching the 
loading of the last article for his ship’s cabin. 
It was a sewing-machine belonging to his 
wife, for Mrs. Griggs was to go with her 
husband for the voyage on the Marie Celeste. 
of five hundred tons, bound for Genoa. As 
the machine was slung aboard, the captain’s 
wife, with their seven-vear-old daughter and 
their twelve-year-old son, and accompanied 
by the vessel's owner, appeared on the wharf. 

The boy ran up to Captain Griggs, crying : — 

“ Oh, father, do please take me for a trip as 
well as sister.” 

44 Stop there, my lad, not so fast;’ replied 
his father; “you’ve been two voyages with 
me, and now it’s proper that you stay at 
home so as to attend school.” 

“ But 1 shall be lonesome without mother 
and sister,’’ replied the boy. 

“ Aye, I dare say you will,” said the old 
man, ’ thoughtfully. Then, turning to his 
owner, “ What do you say. sir. as to the boy 
corning with his mother and sister ? ” 

The owner of the ship shook his head. 

•' 1 believe, captain, the lad should stick to 
his books.” 

That settled it. When the brig hauled off, 
the captain's son was left standing on the 







jetty beside his fathers employer, and he 
wept as though he was broken-hearted, till 
the owner took him to a shop and bought him 
some sweets and toys. In not taking his son 
on that voyage of the Celeste the skipper spared 
the lad — what ? No one can answer that 
question. The weeks passed, two months or 
more. Then suddenly through the State 
Department there came to the owner, from 
the United States Consul at Gibraltar, this 
notice : — 

Gibraltar, January 2nd, 1873, 
The American brig Marie Celeste, of New York, 
was brought: into this port by the British barque 
Dei Gratia. Marie Celeste picked up on high seas 
on December 5th, abandoned. Brig in perfect con- 
dition, but was taken possession of by Admiralty 
Court as a derelict. Fate of crew unknown. 

The owner of the ill-fated brig at once took 
passage for Gibraltar. Before his departure, 
however, he sent a copy of the letter to 
Captain Griggs’s little son. 

“ If only father had taken me along with 
him,” the boy said, “ we should have been 
together and happy now. For when they 
left me and took mother and sister that made 
the ship’s company up to thirteen.” 

At noon on 5th December, 1872, the 
Atlantic, at a point three hundred miles due 
west from Gibraltar, was as smooth as a mill- 
pond, and there were three vessels within 
sight of each other. One was a German 
tramp steamer holding a course for the West 
Indies, and crossing the bows of the brig 
about three miles off. The steamer ran up a 
signal that called for an answer from the 
brig. But the brig sent no answer. She was 
silent. Then, as if saving to the brig, “ Well, 
if you don’t want me to speak to you or 
report you, it’s all the same to me,” the 
tramp held on her course due south, dropping 
at last over the horizon. 

The third vessel was the British barque 



Dei Gratia , Captain Boyce, bound for 
Gibraltar. Captain Boyce, through his tele- 
scope, had seen the signal displayed by the 
tramp steamer when trying to speak to the 
brig. Also, he had waited in vain for an 
answering flag from the Marie Celeste , the 
reply demanded by the common code of 
courtesy on the high seas. 

“ Queer, jolly impolite, when I come to 
think of it,” was the British skipper’s 
comment, and he determined to investigate. 
“ A confounded, surly churl of a sea-dog 
who refused to be spoken at sea.” for the 
Briton was not as lacking in curiosity as his 
brother skipper of the steamer seemed to be. 
Taking every advantage of the cat’s-paw of 
wind from the southward, Captain Boyce ran 
within hailing distance of the silent brig. 

“ There appears to he something amiss with 
that vessel ” he said to his mate, Adams. 

“Aye, sir,” replied the mate; “ she should 
by rights have every inch of sail spread. And 
how she yaws, sir. She acts to me, sir. as 
though the crew were all drunk.” 

They were now within half a mile of the 
Marie Celeste , and both captain and mate 
were scrutinizing closely the queer actions of 
the brig, the captain through his telescope 
and the mate through binoculars. Suddenly, 
at the same moment, both cried, “ Not a 
soul in sight on her decks ! ” 

“ It must be our eyes ; we can’t see them, 
but they're there somewhere, of course,” said 
the skipper. 

There was still no response from the 
brig. 

“ Give ’em an urgent hoist, Adams : that’ll 
get ’em, surely.” 

Forthwith the urgent hoist was run up. 
Still no reply. 

Meanwhile, the behaviour of the brig 
became stranger than ever. The wind had 



52 



T1IE ST RAM) MAGAZINE. 



veered slightly, and the brig’s sails were 
flapping in an irresponsible way. 

The fools, 1 ’ cried the skipper of the 
lh-itish ship. £t Strange we can’t see them. 
What arc they hiding for ? Hut they’re 
there, sure enough, ’cause they’re bringing 
her about. Hang me. if they ain’t trying to 
run away from us ! ” 

Captain Boyce now formed a trumpet with 
his hands and shouted, “ Brig, ahoy ! ” the 
mate joining in the yell, for they were within 
easy hailing distance. But the mysterious 
brig still failed to answer, and, though all 
hands on the British ship could now examine 
the decks of the brig with the naked eye, not 
a sign of life could they discover. 

“ Lower a boat,” ordered Captain Boyce. 
“ Mr. Adams, we must board that craft. Her 
whole crew is either drunk or murdered, or 

dead of fever, or starved to death, or ” lie 

turned to look into the mate’s eyes. 

Or they’ve abandoned the ship, sir,” said 
the mate, understanding] y. 4i And yet, never 
that, sir. Why should they abandon her ? 
She’s not showing signs of distress, not 
one.” 

On the calm sea a boat, manned by two 
sailors and carrying both captain and mate 
from the Dei Gratia , pulled towards the strange 
brig. As they drew near they read, on the 
vessel’s stern, “ Marie Celeste , New York.” 

4t Celeste , ahoy 3 On deck, there,” cried 
Boyce, as lie came alongside, well forward. 
The only answer was the flapping of the 
somnolent sails aloft. 

“ Bless me, if she ain’t pretty near all right 
aloft,” said the skipper. “ It’s below the 
wrong is,” 

Whereupon lie ordered his sailors to stand 
by, while he and the mate boarded the brig, 
climbing up by the chain-plates. 

Then, ’ after one swift glance over the 
bulwarks, the captain said : — 

“ All hands must he below, for there’s not 
a man in sight, not even a man at the wheel.” 

The two Britons then made their way aft, 
noting the ship’s condition as they went. Not 
a thing was missing. Nothing was wanting 
that would be needed by such a vessel at sea. 
She was obviously a first-class craft, freshly 
painted, newly outfitted, spick and span in 
every way. 

But that uncanny silence on such a fine 
ship was something awesome. The two men 
felt their flesh creep. Was the ship deserted ? 
'lb them the brig seemed a floating graveyard, 
a, ghost ship, the kind of phantom craft they 
had read about. From stem to stern, in 
cabin and forecastle, the two men searched, 



hut not a human being, dead or alive, could 
they find. 

“ Mutiny ! ” exclaimed the skipper. 
'■ Master and mate have been thrown over- 
board. But where are the mutineers ? 
Why this game of hide-and-seek ? ” 

After a second examination of every part of 
the mysterious brig the mariners returned to 
the cabin. 

“ Well, it hasn’t been mutiny, sir.” said 
the mate ; u there’s no sign of a struggle.” 

“ Nor was it piracy,” said the captain ; 
u the money-box has not been disturbed, 
and the cargo’s valuable, but not touched, 
and there’s no indication of any violence.” 
f< Nor starvation, sir, with fever and all 
hands going loony and jumping over the side, 
because there’s tons of grub, and the medicine- 
chest ain’t been used to any account.” 

“ And there was no storm, Adams, nor 
waterspout, nor tidal wave to wash ’em 
overboard. The log shows nothing since 
leaving Sandy Hook.” 

” Well, then, sir, if it weren’t mutineers, 
nor pirates, nor storm, nor wreck, nor leak, 
nor famine, nor sickness, what could it have 
been, sir, except a sea-serpent sticking his 
snout aboard and swallowing ’em one by 
one ? ” 

“ They abandoned ship, Adams, that’s 
plain,” said the skipper, ignoring the sea- 
serpent theory. 

., pink, white, 
yellow, blue, green, purple, heliotrope, and orange. 




Needless to say, it took me a long time to obtain 
enough tickets to make up a sufficient number of sets 
of the different colours. The height of the model is 
1 ft. 6in., the length ift. 6in., and the depth ift. — Mr. 
II. Lawson, 13, Dewsbury Crescent, Chiswick. 





NE is familiar 
Beware of 



or. 

' y -T0PLA K;:s 



with “ Beware of the Trains,” 
the Steam-Roller,” and other 
warning signs, but it has 
been left, to tlic military 
authorities to erect the 
first signboard warning 
people against aeroplanes. 
This is erected on Salis- 
bury Plain, near the 
Central Flying School, 
where the naval and mili- 
tary flying men are 
trained ; and there is good 
reason for the danger- 
board, for on busy 
days aeroplanes pass 
and repass over the 
plain with such 
frequency that an 
unsuspecting civilian 
might easily receive 
damage from one 
of the defensive Fr— 
“ wasps ” of Great 
Britain. The day is 
not far distant, pro- 
bably, when similar 
notice boards will be 
seen all over the 
country. Mr. C.J.L. 
Clarke, 5 and 6, 
Johnson’s Court, 

Fleet Street, E.C. 



THE QUEEREST MAIL-CARRIER IN THE 
WORLD. 

T HIS title can certainly be claimed by Mr. Dick 
Crane for the conveyance he used when 
running the mails in Alaska. It consisted of a bicycle, 
without pedals, fitted with a heavy horse saddle, to 
which was harnessed, of all unlikely animals, a well- 
grown bear ! The quaint vehicle and the still more 
extraordinary steed which pulled it about the country 
have been exhibited in London and elsewhere, and, 
naturally enough, have aroused the greatest interest. 
-Mr. C. J. L. Clarke, 5 and 6, Johnson’s Court, Fleet 
Street, E.C. 





1 20 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




AN IDEA WORTH IMITATING. 



T IIE above photograph suggests an excellent idea 
for those who happen to live in a “ tramp ” 
district, as the old adage “ Once bit, twice shy,” would 
assuredly hold good in tliis case. Were it not: for the 
fact that this “snap” was taken in the Vale of 
Aylesbury, and that the “ pursuer ” is stuffed, the 
consequences might be quite as serious as the picture 
suggests. — Mr. Stanley H. Robinson, 167, Castellain 
Mansions, Maid a Vale, W. 

MONUMENT TO ADAM. 

T HIS monument erected to the “ memory of 
Adam, the first man,” is the only one of its 
kind in America, and probably in the world. It was 
erected in 1909 by Mr. John P. Brady, a well-known 
contractor and builder, of Baltimore, at his country 
place, “ Hickory Ground,” near Gardenville, in the 
north-eastern suburbs of Baltimore, Maryland. . It is 
composed ol stone, bronze, and cement, and is sur- 
mounted by a very large and accurate sundial, 
especially calculated and constructed for the latitude 
in which the monument is erected, N. Tat. 39° 20'. 




Surrounding the hour figures, in a circle on the dial, i s 
the motto, “ Sic Transit Gloria Mundi ” (So Passes the 
Cdory of the World), and the dale, 1909, and on either 
side of the shaft, is a sunken panel with sunken letters, 
the two reading : — 

“This, the First Shaft in America, is Erected • 
'To the Memory of Adam, the First Man.” 

The monument has naturally attracted much alien* 
lion. Mr. Brady has stated, among other things, in a 
newspaper interview, that “ where so many others of 
lesser worth have been honoured, he thought it about 
time that something was done for Adam.” — Mr. Claude 
L. Woolley, 302, W. Madison Street, Baltimore, 
Maryland, U.S.A. 



A CRICKET CURIOSITY. 

^pilE REV. II. K. WOODWARD, while acting 
L as Chaplain to the City of London Mental 
Hospital at Stone, got the accompanying snapshot, in 
August. 1912. While the hospital team was batting 
a rather erratic bowler of the North Kent United got 
in a straight one, and jus a result, the off bail fell off and 




the leg bail slid along and balanced itself on the middle 
stump. Seeing that something unusual had happened 
Drs. Patterson and Simpson and the Chaplain ran to 
the wicket, with the result that out of the Chaplain’s 
bag was produced a camera— and here we have the 
result. Have any of our readers ever seen quite the 
Same thing ? 



Solution of Last Month's Bridge 
Problem. 

The bystander was right. A and B could win five tricks out 
of the seven. Play as follows : — 

The card underlined wins the trick. The card immediately 
beneath is led to the next trick. 

A V B 2 



Hearts queen Hearts king 
Clubs 4 Clubs 6 ? 

Hear ts knave! Clubs ro 
Hearts 4 Hearts 7_ 



Spades 4 Hearts 3 

Clubs knav e Clubs 8 

Clubs 7 Clubs 9 

Spades knave Hearts 6 



And 13 must win the rest. 



If at Trick 2, V leads a diamond, A trumps his partner’s king 
with the 4, and A B win six tricks. This was the play that A 
had in view, but Y knew better than to fall into the trap. 







 




T 1 1 E “ TERRA NOVA” IN THE SHADOW OF AN ENORMOUS ICEBERG. 




TO THE SOUTH POLE Y 



CAPTAIN SCOTT S 
OWN STORY 

TOLD FROM HIS JOURNALS 




Photographs hy HERBERT G. PONTING, F.R.G.S., Camera Artist 

to the Expedition. 

This and the articles which are to follow are related from the journals of Captain 
Scott, and give the first connected story of the British Antarctic Expedition, 1910-1913. 
The story has been told from the journals by Mr. Leonard Huxley, well known as 
the biographer of his celebrated father, and carefully read and revised by Commander 
Evans, R.N. With few exceptions, all the photographs, which have been selected 
from many hundreds, are here published for the first time. 



PART II. 



At Hut Point. 

[ March 6th they took up their 
abode in the old Discovery hut 
at the south end of Ross 
Island, which had now been 
transformed from its pre- 
viously uninhabitable con- 
dition. Hut Point was their 
home for over five weeks, while they waited 
for the Sound to freeze over and afford a 
road back to the station; for inspection of 
the land from the height of Castle Rock was 
adverse. “ There is no doubt that the route 
to Cape Evans lies over the worst corner of 
Erebus. From this distance the whole 
mountain-side looks a mass of crevasses, but 

Vol. xlvi.— 17 . 



a route might be found at a level of three 
or four thousand feet.” 

This season it was a stormy spot, with 
much wind and three gales in the first fort- 
night, “ any one of which would have rendered 
the bay impossible for a ship, and therefore 
it is extraordinary that we should have 
entirely escaped such a blow when the 
Discovery was in it in 1902.” 

Trouble With the Blubber-Stove. 

One result of the wind was to make the 
blubber-stove smoke, so that “ we are all as 
black as sweeps and our various garments 
are covered with oily soot. We look a fearful 
gang of ruffians. The hut has a pungent 




Copyright, 1913, by “ Everybody’s Magazine," in the United States of America. 




124 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 




THE WONDERS OF 

the castle berg, with dog-sledges in the foreground— one of the most striking 




THE ANTARCTIC. 

PICTURES OF FANTASTIC ICE- FORMATIONS EVER TAKEN IN THE POl.AR REGIONS. 



CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY 



126 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



odour of blubber and blubber-smoke. We have 
grown accustomed to it, but imagine that our- 
selves and our clothes will be given a wide 
berth when we return to Cape Evans/’ 

The time was occupied in various small 
activities — the conveying of more stores to 
Corner Camp, seal-hunting, the manufacture 
of new and improved blubber-stoves, 
geological excursions to the curious volcanic 
rocks on the hills above, investigation of the 
growing ice, often with fish frozen in — one, 
indeed, in the act of swallowing a smaller 
fish — or study of the air-currents over the 
ridge. But it was ill waiting, with so much 
to reorganize, and so much of the transport 
gone, and the dogs suffering from the weather. 
The majority were at last allowed to run loose, 
at the risk of a murder or two : but the 
strongest could not be given such liberty 
without fear of widespread destruction. 

When at last the ice was firm enough for a 
start, Scott and his advance guard took two 
days to reach Cape Evans, being forced to 
camp in a blizzard under one of the islands, 
with some expectation of finding the ice 
break up again under them. So with great 
exertion they reached the station early on 
April 13th, and the next day, Good Friday, is 
marked by the unusual entry, “ Peaceful day,” 

Great was the relief to find how baseless 
were his recent fears lest the storms that had 
raged at Cape Armitage on the depot journey 
should have damaged the new hut at Cape 
Evans ; for, although over a hundred feet 
from the shore, it stood but eleven feet 
above high-water mark, and with such 
abnormal conditions as had led to the loss 
of the ponies and the breaking of Glacier 
Tongue, it might well be that his careful 
calculations had been falsified, and the worst 
might have happened to those left at the base. 
Ali w y as well, but for one item of bad news : the 
death of another pony, nicknamed Hacken- 
schmidt, from his vigorous use of forelegs as 
well as hindlegs when obstreperous ; and it 
was with mingled feelings that the captain 
could look upon the remnant of his teams 
safe in their stable. Hackenschmidt was an 
intractable beast. Now that he was required 
to get into good condition, he had pined away, 
as his keeper, Anton, firmly believed, out of 
“ cussedness,” a fixed determination to do 
no work for the expedition. 

At Main Hut-The Ingenuities of the 
Handy-Men. 

Otherwise the hut was a revelation of per- 
fect arrangement. It had been a sound and 



promising resting-place in the early days when 
Scott left it for his depot-laying trip ; now it 
not only seemed positively luxurious, with the 
possibility of a bath after three months of 
primitive existence, but it possessed charm 
as well as comfort in the fittings set up by 
the various workers in their allotted places. 
There could be no higher symbol of the tri- 
umph of mind over matter than “ Simpson’s 
Corner,” a perfect meteorological station 
established within, so connected with the 
instruments without that in the fiercest 
storms, the most piercing cold, the observer 
could take his records without going outside, 
with danger of frost-bite to himself and 
uncertainty in taking the record. Ther- 
mometer and barometer, wind-gauge, electrical 
instruments, all told their tale at a glance. 
Then came the photographer’s room, another 
triumph. Ponting, trained to be a “handy- 
man ” by much travel, had created his work- 
shop out of such material as he could lay 
hands upon. Tie had in order all the means 
for bringing his beautiful work to perfection, 
calling forth the description of him as “an 
artist in love with his work.” 

Next the science department, and the 
biologists with their microscopes — neatness 
and good carpentry conspicuous in the well- 
finished shelves. Not least remarkable, 
because most unexpected, the mechanical 
genius of Clissold, the excellent cook, who, it 
turned out, had enjoyed a mechanician’s 
training before he took to pots and pans. 
To ensure the proper baking of his bread in 
the none too large oven, he had devised an 
arrangement by which the bread, as it “ rose/’ 
rang an electric bell to warn him. No wonder 
that he came to be regarded as a specialist 
to be consulted in motor ailments. 

The Ponies. 

The stables — now holding ten beasts only 
out of the original nineteen, alas !— gave 
double room to most and space to lie down, 
if necessary, when the floor could have some 
covering to prevent chill. For the time they 
were exercised by riding barebacked over the 
beach ; perhaps a risky proceeding where the 
shore was so strewn with boulders. Demetri, 
who tended them, had enthusiastically 
practised the building of shelters such as 
should be used on the march. All that 
could be done was being done. 

Inspection of one. department after another 
produced a deep impression. “ I was gradu- 
ally brought to realize,” writes Scott, “ what 
an extensive and intricate, but eminently 




CAPTAIN SCOTT AND THE DEPOT - LAYING PARTY. 

THIS PHOTOGRAPH, TAKEN ON THEIR RETURN, WELL SHOWS THE ROUGH AND UNKEMPT APPEARANCE OF THE PARTY. THE NAMES, READING FROM LEFT 
TO RIGHT OF THE PICTURE, ARE— TAYLOR, WRIGHT, EVANS, BOWERS, SCOTT, DEBENHAM, GRAN, EVANS (P.O.), AND CREAM* 





128 




"PRESSURE RIDGES." 

THIS STRIKING PHOTOGRAPH OR THESE HUGE MASSES OF BROKEN ICE CONVEYS MORE FORCIBLY THAN 
ANY DESCRIPTION THE ENORMOUS POWER EXERTED BY- THESE VAST FIELDS OF ICE. 



satisfactory, organization I had made myself 
responsible for.” 

Four days’ rest, and Scott headed a double 
sledge party to take supplies to the party held 
up at Hut Point till the new ice should form a 
level road again for the ponies instead of the 
difficult inland route from the glacier over the 
heights of Castle Rock. This did not happen 
till the middle of May. Meantime the increas- 
ing cold indicated the end of the sledging 
season. The obstacles became harder ; faces 
got frost-bitten, and feet grew cold in the 
long effort to climb the wall of the ice-foot. 
The drift of frozen snow-dust was streaming- 
off the cliff ; the rope that had let them down 
four days before was now buried at both ends ; 



the only means of scaling the wall was to un- 
load a sledge and hold it end up on men’s 
shoulders, while Scott himself clambered up 
this impromptu ladder, and with an ice-axe 
cut steps over the cornice. 

Sealing an Iee-Wall. 

With the Alpine rope he helped up others, 
then the gear was hauled up piecemeal and 
repacked. “For Crcan, the last man up, we 
lowered the sledge over cornice and used 
a bowline in other end of rope on top of it. 
He came up grinning with delight, and we all 
thought the ascent rather a cunning piece of 
work.” Then, chilled to the bone, they all 




CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



dashed up the slope, regardless of cre- 
vasses, to restore circulation. All went 
well, however, but for a storm that 
kept them at the Hut for an extra day. 
No weather for sledging : 11 The wind 
blowing round the cape absolutely 
blighting force 7 and temperature 






COMMANDER EVANS IN ANTARCTIC DRESS. 




I 3 0 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE 1 




THIS MAP SHOWS THE MOVEMENTS OF THE EXPEDITION RELATED IN THE PRESENT INSTALMENT. 



ONE TON 
CAMP 



below - 30 0 .” Vet Scott, anxious to discover 
what effect such conditions had on the for- 
mation of new ice, “ took a walk to Cape 
Armitage” in the gale, and found the “sea 
a black cauldron covered with frost -smoke ; 
no ice can form in such weather.” 

The return, as cold, and calling for as much 
ice-craft as the outward journey, afforded one 
amusing and very human incident. Out on 
the sea-ice “ marched to Little Razor Back 
without halt, our own sledge dragging fear- 
fully. Crean said there was great difference 
in sledges, though loads were equal. Bowers 
politely assented when I voiced this senti- 
ment, hut I’m sure he and his parly thought 
it the plea of tired men. However, there was 
nothing like proof, and he readily consented 
to change sledges. The difference was really 
extraordinary. We felt the new sledge a 
featherweight compared with the old, and set 
up a great pace for the home quarters, regard- 
less of how much we perspired. We arrived 
at the II ut ten minutes ahead of the others, 
who were by this time quite convinced as to 
the difference in the sledges.” 

In Winter Quarters. 

It was now time to settle into winter 
quarters. St. George’s Day was the last 
day of the sun ; whereafter came only “ the 
long, mild twilight which, like a silver clasp, 
unites to-day and yesterday ; when morning 
and evening sit together hand in hand beneath 
the starless sky of midnight.” 



“ A theme for a pen,” he muses, “ would 
be the expansion of interest in Polar affairs. 
Compare the interests of a winter spent by 
the old Arctic voyagers with our own, and 
look into the causes. The aspect of everything 
changes as our knowledge expands.” Nor 
is this all ; he notes emphatically elsewhere, 
“ Science, the rock foundation of all effort.” 
Then follows another “ impression ” : “ The 
expansion of human interest in rude surround- 
ings may perhaps best be illustrated by com- 
parisons. It will serve to recall such a simple 
case as the fact that our ancestors applied 
the terms 4 horrid/ ‘ frightful,’ to mountain 
crags which in our own day are more justly 
admired as lofty, grand, and beautiful. The 
poetic conception of this natural phenomenon 
has followed not so much an inherent change 
of sentiment, as the intimacy of wider know- 
ledge and the death of superstitious influence. 
One is much struck by the importance of 
realizing limits.” 

These reflections seem to spring from the 
stimulating success of a very notable feature 
of the winter routine. Evening lectures, 
followed by discussions, were given three 
times a week. With so many experts in the 
most varied branches of pure science and the 
practical arts of travel there was no lack of 
material ; and the readiness to give of their 
best was only exceeded by the enthusiastic 
desire to receive. The unlearned found these 
high things to be lout the woof of their daily 
experience : and as for the learned, one day 
a biologist was overheard offering a geologist 



CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



a pair of socks if he would teach him some 
geology. 

There were lectures by Wilson on the flying 
birds of the Antarctic and the penguins ; on 
winds and weather in general and in these 
high latitudes by Simpson, with a theory of 
blizzards, besides descriptions of the magnetic 
and other instruments at work ; the problems 
of biology and parasitism by Nelson and 
Atkinson ; the physiography and geology of 
the neighbourhood and volcanoes by Taylor 
and Debenham ; ice structure by Wright ; 
the Barrier and the Ice Cap, by Scott ; an 
account by Taylor of the great glacier to be 
ascended on the Southern trip and the things 
to look out. for. And with ever closer applica- 
tion to immediate needs, the management 
and training of the ponies, by Oates ; survey- 
ing, by Evans ; motor sledges, by Day ; 
sledging diets and Polar clothing, by Bowers ; 
scurvy, by Atkinson ; a general discussion of 
the plans for the Southern trip, set forth by 
Scott himself, so that all might understand 
the why and the wherefore of the arrange- 
ments ; the whole lightened and beautified 
with as many slides as could be made, and 
further by Wilson’s lecture on sketching and 
the artistic principles involved ; Meares’s 
travels in Central Asia, and Ponting’s four 



* 3 * 

picture-shows and graphic descriptions of his 
wide-ranging travels. 

Thoroughness was the keynote of the work, 
alike in art and in science. It is recorded 
how Ponting rarely counted his first picture 
good enough, and sometimes five or six plates 
would be exposed before the critical artist was 
satisfied. “ This way of going to work 
would perhaps,” notes Scott, “ be more strik- 
ing if it were not common to all our workers 
here. A very demon of unrest seems to stir 
them to effort, and there is not a single man 
who is not striving his utmost to get good 
results in his own particular department.” 
“ The fact is,” he writes elsewhere, “ science 
cannot be served by dilettante methods, but 
demands a mind spurred by ambition or the 
satisfaction of ideals.” It was well, there- 
fore, with the large scientific interests which 
gave the solid justification for the expedition : 
“If the Southern journey comes off, nothing, 
not even priority at the Pole, can prevent the 
expedition ranking as one of the most import- 
ant that ever entered the Polar regions.” 

Scott’s Keen Appreciation of His 
Comrades. 

Never, it may be believed, has a party 
combined so much of intellectual power 




WINTER PASTIMES. 

EVENING LECTURES WERE GIVEN THREE TIMES A WEEK. PONTING IS HERE SEEN DESCRIBING HIS 

TRAVELS IN JAPAN. 





T 3 2 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 



with physical fitness, and the result was 
apparent in the high level of mutual appre- 
ciation, of intelligent co-operation, and wise 
enthusiasm. There were mistakes, of course, 
but errors due to excess rather than defect 
of zeal ; while a specialist in some practical 
job might be unequal to the abstract 
calculations connected with it. The salient 
fact was that the human relations, the 
moral and social atmosphere, from first to 
last continued without a cloud. 

Time after time Scott is impelled to note 
this “ marked and beneficent characteristic of 
our community,” so greatly due, in his con- 
sidered opinion, to the object-lesson of Wilson’s 
patient and thorough work, his constant help 
to others’ efforts, and his sound judgment to 
which one and all appealed on matters little 
or great. To quote but one passage : “I 
am very much impressed with the extra- 
ordinary and general cordiality of the relations 
which exist amongst our people. I do not 
suppose that a statement of the real truth — 
namely, that there is no friction at all — will 
be credited ; it is so generally thought that 
the many rubs of such a life as this are quietly 
and purposely sunk in oblivion. With me 
there is no need to draw a veil ; there is 
nothing to cover. There are no strained 
relations in this hut, and nothing more 
emphatically evident than the universally 
amicable spirit which is shown on all occa- 
sions. Such a state of affairs would be 
delightfully surprising under any conditions ; 
but it is much more so when one remembers 
the diverse assortment of our company. 
This theme is worthy of expansion. To-night 



Oates, captain in a smart cavalry regiment, 
has been ‘ scrapping ’ over chairs and tables 
with Debenham, a young Australian student. 
It is a triumph to have collected such men.” 

This interesting and characteristic passage 
is reproduced below in facsimile. 

Outdoor Research. 

Even the winter admitted of various forms 
of outdoor research, apart from keeping the 
meteorological and physical records or work- 
ing out results under the roof of the hut. In 
the ice-holes, sedulously kept open, were 
fish-traps, which supplied Dr. Atkinson with 
specimens for his novel and interesting 
investigations into parasites ; in another, a 
tide-gauge, and farther out an instrument for 
measuring the sea-currents. Many new obser- 
vations of curious facts were but re-discoveries 
of what had been found ten years before, but 
not published. Local geology, the ice and its 
growth, offered obvious fields for observation. 

Balloons. 

More novel were experiments with Simpson’s 
small balloons to test the air - currents and 
the temperature of the upper air. 

As the balloon travelled a three-mile thread 
of silk ran out along the ground, so that its 
course could afterwards be traced. A slow 
match between the balloon and the recording 
instrument, with its parachute, was timed to 
burn through after an ascent of so many 
minutes, and the instrument floated to earth. 

Records were also kept of the men’s weight 




CAPTAIN SCOTT’S TRIBUTE TO HIS COMRADES. 



REPRODUCED IX FACSIMILE FROM HIS JOURNALS, BY SPECIAL PERMISSION OF LADY SCOTT. 




CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY . 



'33 



# * 

UrrfL-^ 

Ox -f -I 0 , , 

~* 4 * ^ 

<u^LJz~. L. ./- to ' Wtc / ^ 

^'» «V i^,-MZ^ yy *. k ~ . L ^ 

/r *~f^‘ rtL ^ 9 e*j4Z~ *. <u^ t- 

^ A*m» ^ 0- 

^ c i £l**~sC ^4~**«*s £ - 

■U ~ *, LCL^^ 1~ to-U.U^ 



and measurements. On the whole “ we have 
remained surprisingly constant/’ but there 
seemed to be improvement in lung power and 
grip. 

“Many Inventions.” 

Practical work of all sorts went forward 
with a view to the needs of future expedi- 
tions. We read of Petty-Officer Evans, with 
his usual ingenuity, devising new forms of 
ski-boots and crampons to be used with the 
warm finnesko, or fur boots, providing 
lightness, warmth, comfort, and ease ; of 
Cherry-Garrard starting practice in building- 
stone huts and Eskimo igloos likely to be 
needed on the winter expedition to the penguin 
rookery in which he was to take part, while 
later others joined in, and special knives were 
designed for cu tting the icy slabs that compose 
the igloo walls. Scott experimented in person 
upon the comfort of a hole in the snow, and 
found it as excellently warm as the dogs 
seemed to find it. Debenham invented a 
“ go-cart,” or sledge on wheels, which in 
certain conditions of the snow ran better than 
on the ordinary runners. Day and Lashley 
invented a simple and effective stove to burn 
blubber, which was to prove of the utmost 
service on expeditions near the sea, when seals 
could be found. Officers who were to take 
part in the expeditions perfected themselves 
in such branches of surveying as would be 



useful for charting their journeys and finding 
their way. 

Telephones. 

Telephones were established with great 
effect, the first to the isolated chamber in 
the neighbouring ice-hill, where magnetic 
instruments and pendulums were at work in 
an even temperature, so that accurate time 
signals could be transmitted between these 
and the transit instrument in the interior 
of the hut. Another was taken to the ice- 
hole, three-quarters of a mile away, where 
Nelson had the tide-gauge. Here connection 
was made with a bare aluminium wire and 
earth return, the success of which encouraged 
them to the bold scheme of linking up with 
Hut Point, fifteen miles away. This, too, 
worked admirably ; it was no small relief and 
satisfaction to be in touch with this distant 
outpost and to have instant news of the various 
parties who went out depot-laying, or of 
Meares when he chose this hermitage for 
undisturbed training of the dogs. 

Seott’s Own Description of the Expedi 
tion to Cape Crozier. 

The most striking event of the winter season 
was the expedition of Wilson, Bowers, and 
Cherry-Garrard to the Emperor Penguin 
rookery at Cape Crozier, the eastern extremity 



134 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




of the island on the opposite side from Cape 
Evans, and separated from it by all the bulk 
of Mounts Erebus and Terror. The way there 
led south as far as Hut Point, then east over 
the wind-swept Barrier. The three men 
returned to Cape Evans on Augus.t ist, after 
a midwinter journey of five weeks, looking 
incredibly weather-worn, chiefly from sheer 
lack of sleep, a deficiency soon remedied, for, 
in all their unparalleled experiences, frost-bite 
had never seriously assailed them. In spirit, 
all were equally unwavering.; in physique, 



Bowers seemed to have come through best. 
“ 1 believe,” writes Scott, “ lie is the hardest 
traveller that ever undertook Polar journey, 
as well as one of the most undaunted. More 
bv hint than direct statement, I gather his 
value to the party, his untiring energy, and 
the astonishing physique which enables him 



to continue to work under conditions which 
are absolutely paralyzing to others. 

“ So far as one can gather, the story of 
this journey in brief is much as follows : 
The party reached the Barrier two days after 
leaving Cape Evans, still pulling their full 
load of two hundred and fifty pounds per man. 
Tfe snow surface then changed completely 
and grew worse and worse as they advanced. 
For one day they struggled on as before, 
covering four miles ; but from this- onward 
they were forced to relay and found the half- 
load heavier than 
the whole one had 
been on the sea-ice. 

“ Meanwhile the 
temperature h a d 
been falling, and 
now for more than 
a week the ther- 
mometer fell below 
6o°. On one 
night the minimum 
showed -71 0 , and 
on the next -77°; 
109° of frost! 
Although in this 
truly fearful cold 
the air was com- 
paratively s t i 1 1, 
every n 0 w and 
again little puffs of 
wind came eddying 
across the snow 
plain with blight- 
ing effect. No 
civilized being has 
ever encountered 
such conditions be- 
fore with only a 
tent of thin canvas 
to rely on for 
shelter. We have 
been looking up 
the records to-day, 
and find that 
Amundsen, on a 
j <5 u r n ey to the 
N 0 r t h magnetic 
pole in March, en- 
countered tempera- 
tures similar in 
degree, and recorded a minimum of 79 0 , but 
he was with Eskimos, who built him an igloo 
shelter nightly ; he had a good measure of 
daylight ; the temperatures given are prob- 
ably " * unscreened ’ from radiation ; and 
finally he turned homeward and regained 
his ship after five days’ absence. Our 



DR. SIMPSON SENDING UP A SCIENTIFIC BALLOON. 

TO THESE BA I I. CONS, WHICH WERE USED FOR TESTING ATR-CURRENTS AND 
TEMPERATURE, A THREE- MICE THREAD OF SILK WAS ATTACHED FOR TRACING 

PURPOSES. 




CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY. 



T 35 




party went on- 
ward, and re- 
mained absent for 
five weeks . 

“ It took the 
best part of a 
fortnight to cross 
thecoldestregion, 
and then, round- 
ing Cape Mackay, 
they entered the 
wind-swept area. 

Blizzard followed 
blizzard, the sky 
was constantly 
overcast, and 
they staggered on 
in a light which 
was little better 
than complete 
darkness ; some- 
times they found 
themselves high on the slopes of Terror on 
the left of their track, and sometimes diving 
into the pressure ridges on the right amidst 
crevasses and confused ice disturbance. 
Reaching the foothills near Cape Crozier, they 
ascended eight hundred feet, then packed 



their belongings 
over a moraine 
ridge and started 
to build a hut. It 
took three days 
to build the stone 
walls and com- 
plete the roof 
with the canvas 
brought for the 
purpose. Then at 
last theycould at- 
tend to the object 
of the journey. 
The scant twilight 
at midday was so 
short that they 
must start in the 
dark and be pre- 
pared for the risk 
of missing their 
way in returning 
without light. On the first day in which 
they set forth under these conditions it took 
them two hours to reach the pressure ridges, 
and to clamber over them, roped together, 
occupied nearly the same time. Finally they 
reached a place above the rookery where they 



FINNESKO, OH FUR BOOTS. 




THE EXPEDITION TO CAPE CROZIER. 

WILSON, LOWERS, AND CHERRY-GARRARD AT MAIN HUT READY TO START ON THEIR JOURNEY TO THE 

EMPEROR PENGUIN ROOKERY. 





136 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




CAPTAIN SCOTT ON SKI. 

could hear the birds squawking, but from which 
they were quite unable to find a way down. 
The poor light was failing, and they returned 
to camp. Starting again on the following 
day, they wound their way through frightful 
ice disturbances under the high basalt cliffs ; 
in places the rock overhung, and at one spot 
they had to creep through a small channel 
hollowed in the ice. At last they reached 
the sea-ice, but now the light was so far spent 
they were obliged to rush everything. Instead 
of the two or three thousand nesting birds 
which had been seen here in Discovery days, 
they could now only count about a hundred. 
They hastily killed and skinned three to get 
blubber for their stove, and, collecting six 



1,1 That night a blizzard commenced, 
increasing in fury from moment to 
moment. They now found that the 
place chosen for the hut for shelter was 
worse than useless. They had far better 
have built it in the 
open, for the fierce 
wind, instead of strik- 
ing them directly, was 
deflected on to them in 
furious whirling gusts. 
Heavy blocks of snow 
and rock placed on the 
roof were whirled away 
and the canvas bal- 
looned up, tearing and 
straining at its secur- 
ings — its disappear- 
ance could only be a 
question of time. They 
had erected their tent 
with some valuables inside close to the hut ; 
it had been well spread; and more than 
amply secured with snow and boulders, but 
one terrific gust tore it up and whirled it 
away. Inside the hut they waited for the 
roof to vanish, wondering what they could do 
if it went, and vainly endeavouring to make 
it secure. After fourteen hours it went, as 
they were trying to pin down one corner. 
The smother of snow was on them, and they 
could only dive for their sleeping-bags with 
a gasp. Bowers put his head out once and 
said, £ We’re all right,’ in as near his ordinary 
tones as he could compass. The others 
replied, ‘ Yes, we’re all right,’ and all was 
silent for a night and half a day whilst the 



eggs, three of which alone survived, they 
dashed for camp. 

It is possible the birds are deserting 
th s rookery, but it is also possible that 
this early date found only a small 
minority of the birds which will be col- 
lected at a later one. The eggs, which 
have not yet been examined, should 
throw light on this point. Wilson ob- 
served yet another proof of the strength 
of the nursing instinct in these birds. In 
searching for eggs, both he and Bowers 
picked up rounded pieces of ice which 
these ridiculous creatures had been 
cherishing with fond hope. 

1 he light had failed entirely by the 
time the party were clear of the pressure 
ridges on their return, and it was only 
by good luck they regained their camp'. 



Nearly Lost in a Blizzard. 



CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY . 






wind howled on. The snow entered every 
chink and crevice of the sleeping-bags, and 
the occupants shivered and wondered how it 
would all end. 

“ Horrible Discomforts. 5 ' 

“ The wind fell at noon the following day; 
the forlorn travellers crept from their icy 
nests, made shift to spread their floor-cloth 
overhead, and lit their Primus. They tasted 
their first food for forty-eight hours, and 
began to plan a means to build a shelter on the 
homeward route. They decided that they 
must dig a large pit nightly and cover it as 
best they could with their floor-cloth. Put 
now fortune befriended them ; a search to 
the north revealed the tent lying [in a sheltered 
dip of the great snow-slope below their camp- 
ing ground] a quarter of a mile away, and, 
strange to relate, practically uninjured, a fine 
testimonial for the material used in its con- 
struction. On the following day they started 
homeward, and immediately another blizzard 
fell on them, holding them prisoners for two 
days. By this time the miserable condition 
of their effects was beyond description. The 
sleeping-bags were far too stiff to be rolled up 
— in fact, they were so hard -frozen that 



attempts to bend them actually split the 
skins ; the eiderdown bags inside Wilson’s 
and C.-G.’s reindeer covers served but to 
fitfully stop the gaps made by such rents. 
All socks, ffnneslco, and mits had long been 
coated with ice ; placed in breast pockets or 
inside vests at night, they did not even show 
signs of thawing, much less of drying. It 
sometimes took C.-G. three-quarters of an 
hour to get into his sleeping-bag, so flat did it 
freeze and so difficult was it to open. It is 
scarcely possible to realize the horrible dis- 
comforts of the forlorn travellers as they 
plodded back across the Barrier with the 
temperature again constantly below - 6o°. 
In this fashion they reached Hut Point, and 
on the following night our home quarters. 

“ One of the Most Gallant Stories in 
Polar History.” 

“ Wilson is disappointed at seeing so little 
of the penguins, but to me and to everyone 
who has remained here the result of this effort 
is the appeal it makes to our imagination 
as one of the most gallant stories in Polar 
history. That men should wander forth in 
the depth of a Polar night to face the most 
dismal cold and the fiercest gales in darkness 




THE BEAUTIES OF THE ANTARCTIC. 

A STRIKING MIDNIGHT SUN EFFECT, WITH PENGUINS AT THE ICE-EDGE. 




Hitherto we have 
o n 1' y imagined 



PENGUINS AT HOME, ONE OF MR. PONTING'S HAPPIEST 



their severity ; 

now we have proof, and a positive light is 
thrown on the local climatology of our Strait.” 

How Dr. Atkinson Got Lost. 

To illustrate the perils of a Southern storm, 
Scott’s story may be briefly repeated of how 
Dr. Atkinson got lost close to the hut on 
July 4th. It was a stormy day, with 
high wind and a temperature of 25 0 or 
more below zero. The wind moderated 
slightly in the afternoon, and a visit was 
paid to the upper thermometer screen. 
Then, in adventurous mood, Atkinson re- 
solved to continue and visit the thermometer 
in the North Bay, out on the floe. This was 
at 5.30. Gran, equally venturesome, started 
likewise for the South Bay thermometer ; 
but after two or three hundred yards pru- 
dently turned back. It took him an hour 
to struggle home in time for dinner at 
6.45. Half an hour later, as various mem- 



bers of the party came out from dinner, they 
were sent a short way to shout and show 
lights, while a big paraffin flare was arranged 
to be lit on Wind Vane Hill. A first search- 
party to the north went out. The wind 
rose again somewhat, but the moon broke 
through the clouds. Yet even with this help 
the wanderer did not return, and at 9.20 the 
search-party came in with no news. Then a 
whole network of search-parties was organized 
to sweep the coast and all the floe as far as 
the outlying islands. There was little prospect 
of Atkinson’s having found shelter anywhere, 
and his clothing was too light for such a storm. 
It seemed impossible that he had escaped 
serious accident. At last, at 11.45? after 
more than six hours of absence, he was 
brought in from the promontory hard by, 
badly frost-bitten on the hand and less 
severely on the face, and much dazed, as 
regularly happens after such exposure. 



133 

is something new; 
that they should 
have persisted in 
this effort in 
spite of every 
adversity for five 
full weeks is 
heroic. It makes 
a tale for our 
generation which 
I hope may not 
be lost in the 
telling. 

“ Moreover, 
the material re- 
sults are by no 
means d e s p i c- 
able. We shall 
know now when 
that extraordi- 
nary bird, the 
E m p e r o r pen- 
guin, lays its 
eggs, and under 
what conditions ; 
but even if our 
information re- 
mains meagre 
concerning i t s 
embryology, our 
party has shown 
the nature of the 
conditions which 
exist on the Great 
Barrier in winter. 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 




GLIMPSES OF BIRD-LIFE IN THE ANTARCTIC. 



It. turned out that before he had gone a 
quarter of a mile towards the thermometer he 
realized that he had better turn back, guiding 
himself, quite correctly, by the direction of 
the wind. This brought him to an old fish- 
trap, which he knew to be only two hundred 
yards from the headland. He paced the 
distance in what he thought the right direction 
—and found nothing. The effect of a blizzard 
in blunting the faculties — a greater danger 
than mere chill — is shown by the fact that, 
instead of turning east, where he knew the 
land lay, he dully held on his course, and 
in due time found himself a mile or two 
away at Inaccessible Island, under the lee 
of which he groped his way, suddenly losing 
the cliffs entirely in a swirl of drift when 
he was but a few yards distant from them. 
Only one idea persisted in his brain - 
the homeward course was up wind, and 
up wind he plodded. By sheer luck he 

Vol. xlvi.— 18. 



four or live miles 
from home, round 
which he walked, 
thinking it In- 
accessible Island, 
and dug himself 
a shelter under 
its lee. When the 
moon came out 
he judged his 
bearings well and 
set off ho m c- 
ward. The moon 
went in, and 
soon to his sur- 
prise he found 
the real Inacces- 
sible Island on 
his left. Here he 
waited again, 
expecting t h e 
devastating bliz- 
zard to return, 
till the moon re- 
appeared, then 
shaped his course 
anew, and before 
long saw the flare 
on the headland, 
and so j o i n e d 
s o m e o f t h e 
searchers. T h e 
rest did not get 
in till 2 a.m. As 
Atkinson w a s 
ultimately none 
the worse, his 
narrow escape became the most convincing 

object-lesson to those who might need it on 
the dangers of a blizzard. 

How a Blizzard Comes On. 

These dangers of bewildering wind and 
blinding, choking snow-drift, with cold that 
numbed body and brain, were greatly 

enhanced by the suddenness and absence of 
warning with which they sprang up. Expe- 
rience showed that no weather-sign could be 
trusted as giving warning or not. One night, 
the night of August 2ist-22nd, it was Scott’s 
turn to be on night watch, for all the “ after- 
guard ” took turns to study and record the 
displays of aurora. Ele records u the on- 
coming of a blizzard with exceptional begin- 
nings. The sky became very gradually over- 
cast between t a.m. and 4 a.m. About 2.30 
the temperature rose on a steep grade from 
- 20° to 3°. The barometer was fall- 



CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY . 



*39 

hit Tent Island 



140 



TIIE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




“ ICE-SPRAY.” 

SOM E IDEA OF THE EXTRAORDINARY FREAKS OF NATURE MET WITH IN THE ANTARCTIC WILL 1*11 
GAINED FROM THIS PHOTOGRAPH, SHOWING THE A FTER-EFFEC1 S OF A GALE IN THE FORM OF KI LK'.L 
OF FROZEN SPRAY, THREE OR FOUR FEET HIGH. 



ing — rapidly for these regions. Soon after 
four the wind came with a rush, but without 
snow or drift. For a time it was more gusty 
than has ever yet been recorded even in these 
regions. In one gust the wind rose from four 
to sixty-eight miles per hour, and fell again 
to twenty miles per hour within a minute. 
Another reached eighty miles per hour, but 
not from such a low point of origin. The 
effect in the hut was curious ; for a space all 
would be quiet, then a shattering blast would 



descend with a clatter and rattle past venti- 
lator and chimneys, so sudden, so threatening, 
that it was comforting to remember the solid 
structure of our building. The suction of such 
a gust is so heavy that even the heavy snow- 
covered roof of the stable, completely sheltered 
on the lee side of this main building, is violently 
shaken. One could well imagine the plight 
of our adventurers at Cape Crozier when their 
roof was destroyed. The snow which came 
at six lessened the gustiness and brought the 



CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY . 



1 4 1 




But ho laughs best who laughs 
last. One day they presumed too 
far on tin’s immunity, and came 
in with nipped ears. It is uncertain 
whether these members tingled 
more with the cold or with the 
unsparing chaff of their friends. 

But a certain amount of general 
acclimatization undoubtedly took 
place. The journal records, under 
date of July joth : “To-day, 

with the temperature at zero, 
one can walk about outside with- 
out inconvenience in spite of a 
fifty-mile wind. Although I am 
loath to believe it, there must 
be some measure of acclimatiza- 
tion, for it is certain we should 
have felt to-day’s wind severely 
when we first arrived in McMurdo 
Sound.” And, again, six weeks 
later, in a furious wind and drift 
with temperature of i6°, “ it felt 
quite warm outside, and one 
could go about with head un- 
covered — surely impossible in an 
English storm with i6° of frost.” 

The activities of the expedi- 
tion spread in many ramifica- 
tions. So ample was the staff 




ordinary phenomena of a 
blizzard.” 

As to the power of 
endurance in these lati- 
tudes, individuals vary 
greatly. Bowers and Wil- 
son were peculiarly toler- 
ant of cold. They excited 
the mingled admiration 
and frank envy of their 
companions for being able 
to sally forth in light 
headgear when anyone 
else required muffling up. 



DR. WILSON WATCHING THE RECORDER RECEIVING THE FIRST 
RAYS OF THE SUN AFTER THE LONG ANTARCTIC WINTER, 




142 



THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 




WEDDELL SEAL EMERGING FROM AN ICE-HOLE. 



ONE or THE MOST ADMIRABLE OF THE MANY STRIKING PICTURES SECURED BY MR. PONTING 
ILLUSTRATING THE ANIMAL LIFE OF THE ANTARCTIC. 



that it could furnish forth several exploring 
parties and scientific outposts. While Scott 
and his parties were depot-laying in January 
-April, 1911, or away on the great Southern 
journey from the following November, 
geological parties went into the Western 
Mountains. Mention has been made of the 
first, consisting of Griffith Taylor, Debenham, 
Wright, and P.O. Evans, and how, having 
started on January 27th, they joined Scott at 
Hut Point on March 14th. They had crossed 
the Sound, explored and surveyed the Dry 
Valley, the Ferrar and the Koettlitz Glacier 



regions, planting stakes across the ice whereby 
the next comers could determine the move- 
ments of the glacier. The gravels below a 
promising region of limestones, rich in garnets, 
were washed for gold, but only magnetite 
was found. For spice of adventure they had 
their share of hair-breadth escapes when the 
sea-ice suddenly began to break up under 
their feet, and they had a race for their lives. 

On the second, Taylor and Debenham, with 
Gran and P.O. Ford, left on November 7th, 
1911, for Granite Harbour, farther north on 
the western side of McMurdo Sound, and 




CAPTAIN SCOTT'S OWN STORY. 



were away three and a half months. Going 
slowly, with a heavy load of provisions, they 
built a stone hut in Granite Harbour, pro- 
viding warmth by one of the blubber-stoves 
invented by Atkinson, and obtaining both 
blubber and meat from the numerous seals. 
Apart from their geological notes, especially 
on the fossils, coal and other minerals, and the 
illustrations of glacial action, their strangest 
discovery was, perhaps, that of two species 
of wingless insects in their thousands, 
sheltering under pebbles near their head- 
quarters. 

They explored those western highlands on 
which Scott had looked during his short 
Western trip, daringly passing the huge ice 
falls of the Mackay Glacier by portaging sledge 
and gear up a thousand feet of granite cliffs 
and boulder-strewn slopes. Finally, having 
only ten days’ sledging food left, they made 
their wav over the Blue Glacier towards Hut 



*43 

Point, and they were picked up by the ship 
on February 15th.* 

As spring drew on, Scott, with Bowers, 
Simpson, and P.O. Evans, went for thirteen 
days to the Western Mountains, covering 
a hundred and seventy-five miles in ten 
marching days. He wished for a final prac- 
tice in sledging and photography, as well as 
to lay depots for the next Western party and 
to complete certain observations, especially to 
measure the movement of the stakes already 

* Before leaving the subject of these subsidiary evpeditious, 
we must refer to those of Lieutenant Campbell. During bis 
first winter, he was not in touch with the main party. The 
Terra Nova , which picked him up and transferred his party 
to a new base, did not bring news of him to Cape Evans 
till long after Captain Scott had set out for the Pole, while his 
second and involuntary wintering— a marvellous feat — took 
place later still. Since, therefore, his work was not recorded 
in Scott’s journals, it does not come within the scope of these 
articles, albeit, as Lord Curzon stated on the occasion of 
his presenting a gold watch to Lieutenant Campbell on 
behalf of the Royal ( leographical Society, “ a great personal 
achievement ; one of the most brilliant things ever accomplished 
in the history of Arctic and Antarctic exploration.” 




IN MARCHING ORDER. 

SCOTT, ROWERS, SIMPSON, AND P.O. EVANS STARTING ON THEIR EXPEDITION TO THE 

WESTERN MOUNTAINS. 




THE STRAND MAGAZINE. 



144 




THE END OF THE BARRIER. 



set in the Ferrar Glacier. These showed 
the advance of the ice to be about thirty 
feet in seven and a half months, confirming 
the belief in the slow movement of the coastal 
glaciers. In New Harbour copper was dis- 
covered ; but the strangest discovery was 
that of the Glacier Tongue, a mass of ice two 
miles long, which had broken away from near 
Cape Evans in the storm when the ponies 
were drowned. It had driven across the 
Sound, to be stranded on the opposite shore 
forty-five miles away, still bearing a depot 
of fodder and the line of stakes to_ guide 
the ponies across it. Strange to thin.k of 
the plan to build the hut on its seemingly 
stable bulk. What an adventurous voyage 
it would have given its inhabitants ! 

Off to the Pole ! 

The outward course from Barriei Face may 
be divided into three stages: (1) About four 
hundred and twenty-four miles over the 
Barrier. (2) About a hundred and twenty- 
five miles up the Glacier, rising eight thousand 
feet. (3) About three hundred and fifty-three 
miles along the summit plateau to the Pole, 
at a continuous altitude of between nine 
thousand and ten thousand five hundred feet. 
Adding the twenty-one miles from Cape Evans 
to Barrier Face, the total is nine hundred 
and twenty-three— the whole journey out 
and home covering one thousand eight 
hundred and forty-six miles. 

November 1st, 191 1, saw the Southern 
journey begun. 

The first few entries in the diary are chiefly 



concerned with the doings of the ponies. 
Some are generically termed u the crocks ” j 
others were lively and obstreperous ; some 
slow, some swift. “ The little devil Christo- 
pher was harnessed with the usual difficulty, 
and started in kicking mood, Oates holding 
on for all he was worth. Bones ambled off 
gently with Crean, and I led Snippets in his 
wake. Ten minutes after Evans and Snatcher 
passed at the usual full speed.” Indeed, 
“ Snatcher soon led the party, and covered 
the distance in four hours. Bones and 
Christopher arrived almost equally fresh— in 
fact, the latter had been bucking and kicking 
the whole way ; for the present there is no 
end to his devilment, and the great considera- 
tion is how to safeguard Oates. Some quiet 
ponies should always be near him, a difficult 
matter to arrange with such varying rates of 
walking.” 

Thus the first march, writes Scott,