The Worst Journey in the World | Page 2

had no duty to fulfil in cataloguing my followers'
achievements. But there was plenty of work left for me. It has been no
mere gleaning of the polar field. Not half the story had been told, nor
even all the most interesting documents. Among these, I have had from
Mrs. Bowers her son's letters home, and from Lashly his diary of the

Last Return Party on the Polar Journey. Mrs. Wilson has given her
husband's diary of the Polar Journey: this is especially valuable because
it is the only detailed account in existence from 87° 32´ to the Pole and
after, with the exception of Scott's Diary already published. Lady Scott
has given with both hands any records I wanted and could find. No one
of my companions in the South has failed to help. They include
Atkinson, Wright, Priestley, Simpson, Lillie and Debenham.
To all these good friends I can do no more than express my very
sincere thanks.
I determined that the first object of the illustrations should be
descriptive of the text: Wright and Debenham have photographs,
sledging and otherwise, which do this admirably. Mrs. Wilson has
allowed me to have any of her husband's sketches and drawings
reproduced that I wished, and there are many hundreds from which to
make a selection. In addition to the six water-colours, which I have
chosen for their beauty, I have taken a number of sketches because they
illustrate typical incidents in our lives. They are just unfinished
sketches, no more: and had Bill been alive he would have finished them
before he allowed them to be published. Then I have had reproduced
nearly all the sketches and panoramas drawn by him on the Polar
Journey and found with him where he died. The half-tone process does
not do them justice: I wish I could have had them reproduced in
photogravure, but the cost is prohibitive.
As to production, after a good deal of experience, I was convinced that
I could trust a commercial firm to do its worst save when it gave them
less trouble to do better. I acknowledge my mistake. In a wilderness of
firms in whom nothing was first class except their names and their
prices, I have dealt with R. & R. Clark, who have printed this book, and
Emery Walker, who has illustrated it. The fact that Emery Walker is
not only alive, but full of vitality, indicates why most of the other firms
are millionaires.
When I went South I never meant to write a book: I rather despised
those who did so as being of an inferior brand to those who did things
and said nothing about them. But that they say nothing is too often due
to the fact that they have nothing to say, or are too idle or too busy to
learn how to say it. Every one who has been through such an
extraordinary experience has much to say, and ought to say it if he has

any faculty that way. There is after the event a good deal of criticism,
of stock-taking, of checking of supplies and distances and so forth that
cannot really be done without first-hand experience. Out there we knew
what was happening to us too well; but we did not and could not
measure its full significance. When I was asked to write a book by the
Antarctic Committee I discovered that, without knowing it, I had
intended to write one ever since I had realized my own experiences.
Once started, I enjoyed the process. My own writing is my own despair,
but it is better than it was, and this is directly due to Mr. and Mrs.
Bernard Shaw. At the age of thirty-five I am delighted to acknowledge
that my education has at last begun.
APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD.
Lamer, Wheathampstead,
1921.

CONTENTS
PAGE INTRODUCTION xvii

CHAPTER I
FROM ENGLAND TO SOUTH AFRICA 1

CHAPTER II
MAKING OUR EASTING DOWN 24

CHAPTER III
SOUTHWARD 48

CHAPTER IV
LAND 79

CHAPTER V

THE DEPÔT JOURNEY 104

CHAPTER VI
THE FIRST WINTER 178

CHAPTER VII
THE WINTER JOURNEY 230

ILLUSTRATIONS
McMurdo Sound from Arrival Heights in Autumn. The sun is sinking
below the Western Mountains. Frontispiece _From a water-colour
drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
FACING PAGE
The Last of the Dogs. Scott's Southern Journey 1903. xxxvi _From a
sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
The Rookery of Emperor Penguins under the Cliffs of the Great Ice
Barrier: looking east from Cape Crozier. xlii _From a sketch by Dr.
Edward A. Wilson._
Raymond Priestley and Victor Campbell. liv _From a photograph by F.
Debenham._
Sunrise behind South Trinidad Island. July 26, 1910. 12 _From a
water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
The Roaring Forties. 32 _From a water-colour