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quite damped our spirits, Campbell replied: 'The Southern Party reached the Pole on January 18 last year, but were all lost on the return journey—we have their records.'

The anchor was dropped; Campbell and Atkinson immediately came off and told us in detail how misfortune after misfortune had befallen our gallant leader and his four brave comrades. We listened sadly to the story, and our feelings were too deep to be described. We had actually prepared the cabins for the reception of our lost companions, and it was with infinite sadness that the beds were unmade, the flags hauled down from our mastheads, and those undelivered letters sealed up for return to the wives and mothers who had given up so much in order that their men might achieve.

But however great our sorrow we had the consolation of pride in the magnificent spirit shown by the Polar Party. The manner in which these men died is in itself an eloquent description of their characters as we knew them. The absolute generosity of Captain Scott himself runs through his dying appeal to the nation and those letters of his with no word of blame or reflection on others for the disaster, though he could not know that scurvy had smitten the last supporting party, and that those who would have come were fettered by illness and the weather conditions that finally arrested the advance of the dog teams.

It was characteristic also that he did not forget the future of his Expedition, but left instructions and letters to the end that the scientific results should be fitly published.