South with Scott Part 25

There was only one corner of it where a short man could stand upright.

In odd corners were discarded clothes, saturated in blubber and absolutely black with smoke; the weight of these garments was extraordinary, and how Campbell's party ever lived through what they did I don't know:

"Although the igloo was once white inside, blubber stoves had blackened it throughout. No cell prisoners ever had such discomforts.

(Campbell's simple narrative I read aloud to Bruce from Campbell's diary. It was a tale of altruism and grit, so simply told, full of disappointments and privations, all of which they accepted with fort.i.tude and never a complaint. I had to stop reading it as it brought tears to my eyes and made my voice thick--ditto old Bruce.) After spending half an hour at the igloo, and after Pennell had done some magnetic work, picked up our ice anchors and steamed away."

On 27th January, 1913, after breakfast, I called the staff together in the wardroom and read out my plans for the future, officially a.s.sumed the command and control of the Expedition.

I then appointed Lieuts. Campbell, Pennell, Bruce, Surgeon E.L. Atkinson, and Mr. Francis Drake as an executive committee, with myself as president, to a.s.sist me in satisfactorily terminating the Expedition. I asked every member of the staff publicly if he had any questions to put, and also if he could suggest any better combination for the committee. As all were unanimous in the fairness of the selection, it stands. The minutes of the proceedings were taken down and my remarks placed verbatim among the records of the Expedition.

We left a depot of provisions at the head of the Bay, its position being marked by a bamboo and flag.

This depot contains enough foodstuffs to enable a party of five or six men to make their way to b.u.t.ter Point, where, another large depot exists.

Early on 26th January we left these inhospitable coasts, and those who were on deck watched the familiar rocky, snow-capped sh.o.r.es fast disappearing from view. We had been happy there before disaster overtook our Expedition, but now we were glad to leave, and some of us must have realised that these ice-girt rocks and mountains were not meant for human beings to a.s.sociate their lives with. For centuries, perhaps for all time, no other human being will set foot upon the Beardmore, and it is doubtful if ever the great inland plateau will be re-visited, except perhaps by aeroplane.

When we left it was a "good-night" scene for most of us. The great white plateau and peaks were grimly awaiting winter, and they seemed to mock our departing exploring ship as though glad to be left in their loneland Silence.