The Worst Journey in the World | Page 3

drawing by Dr. Edward
A. Wilson._
Pack-ice in the Ross Sea. Midnight, January 1911. 62 _From a
water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
A Sea Leopard. 66
A Weddell Seal. 66 _From a photograph by F. Debenham._
The Terra Nova in the pack. Men watering Ship. 74 _From a
photograph by F. Debenham._
Taking a Sounding. 84 _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
Krisravitza. 84 _From a photograph by F. Debenham._
Mount Erebus showing Steam Cloud, the Ramp, and the Hut at Cape
Evans. 96 _From a photograph by F. Debenham._
Dog-skin outer Mitts showing lampwick Lashings for slinging over the

Shoulders. 114
Sledging Spoon, Pannikin and Cup, which pack into the inner Cooker.
114 _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
Hut Point from the bottom of Observation Hill, showing the Bay in
which the Discovery lay, the Discovery Hut, Vince's Cross, the frozen
sea and the Western Mountains. 158 _From a photograph by F.
Debenham._
Seals. 162
From the Sea. 162 _From sketches by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
Winter Quarters at Cape Evans. Notice the Whale-back clouds on
Erebus, the débris cones on the Ramp, and the anemometer pipes which
had to be cleared during blizzard by way of the ladder at the end of the
Hut. 172 _From a photograph by F. Debenham._
A Cornice of Snow formed upon a Cliff by wind and drift. 176 _From a
photograph by F. Debenham._
PLATE I. A panoramic view over Cape Evans, and McMurdo Sound
from the Ramp. 184 _From photographs by F. Debenham._
The sea's fringe of Ice growing outwards from the Land. 198 _From a
photograph by F. Debenham._
Leading Ponies on the Barrier. November 20, 1911. 206 _From a
sketch for a water-colour drawing by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
Frozen sea and cliffs of Ice: the snout of the Barne Glacier in North
Bay. 212 _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._
Erebus and Land's End from the Sea-ice. 224 _From a photograph by C.
S. Wright._
Erebus from Great Razorback Island. 224 _From a photograph by F.
Debenham._
Two Emperor Penguins. 234 _From a photograph by C. S. Wright._
PLATE II. A panoramic view of Ross Island from Crater Hill, looking
along the Hut Point Peninsula, showing some of the topography of the
Winter Journey. 236 _From photographs by F. Debenham._
Camping after Dark. 246 _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
Camp work in a Blizzard: passing the cooker into the tent. 256 _From a
sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
A procession of Emperor Penguins. 264 _From a photograph by C. S.
Wright._
The Knoll behind the Cliffs of Cape Crozier. 264 _From a photograph

by F. Debenham._
The Barrier pressure at Cape Crozier, with the Knoll. Part of the bay in
which the Emperor Penguins lay their eggs is visible. 266 _From a
photograph by C. S. Wright._
The Emperor Penguins nursing their Chicks on the Sea-ice, with the
cliffs of the Barrier behind. 268 _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A.
Wilson._
Mount Erebus and detail of Ice-pressure. 280 _From photographs by C.
S. Wright._
Down a Crevasse. 290 _From a sketch by Dr. Edward A. Wilson._
MAPS
From New Zealand to the South Pole. lxiv Hut Point. From a sketch by
Dr. Edward A. Wilson. 128 Cape Evans and McMurdo Sound. 194 The
Winter Journey. 294

INTRODUCTION
Polar exploration is at once the cleanest and most isolated way of
having a bad time which has been devised. It is the only form of
adventure in which you put on your clothes at Michaelmas and keep
them on until Christmas, and, save for a layer of the natural grease of
the body, find them as clean as though they were new. It is more lonely
than London, more secluded than any monastery, and the post comes
but once a year. As men will compare the hardships of France,
Palestine, or Mesopotamia, so it would be interesting to contrast the
rival claims of the Antarctic as a medium of discomfort. A member of
Campbell's party tells me that the trenches at Ypres were a comparative
picnic. But until somebody can evolve a standard of endurance I am
unable to see how it can be done. Take it all in all, I do not believe
anybody on earth has a worse time than an Emperor penguin.
Even now the Antarctic is to the rest of the earth as the Abode of the
Gods was to the ancient Chaldees, a precipitous and mammoth land
lying far beyond the seas which encircled man's habitation, and nothing
is more striking about the exploration of the Southern Polar regions
than its absence, for when King Alfred reigned in England the Vikings
were navigating the ice-fields of the North; yet when Wellington fought
the battle