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[Illustration: Frontispiece]
THE WORST JOURNEY
IN THE WORLD
ANTARCTIC
1910-1913
BY
APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD
WITH PANORAMAS, MAPS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE LATE
DOCTOR EDWARD A. WILSON AND OTHER MEMBERS OF THE EXPEDITION
IN TWO VOLUMES
VOLUME ONE
CONSTABLE AND COMPANY LIMITED
LONDON BOMBAY SYDNEY
_First published 1922_
PRINTED IN GREAT BRITAIN
This volume is a narrative of Scott's Last Expedition from its departure
from England in 1910 to its return to New Zealand in 1913.
It does not, however, include the story of subsidiary parties except
where their adventures touch the history of the Main Party.
It is hoped later to publish an appendix volume with an account of the
two Geological Journeys, and such other information concerning the
equipment of, and lessons learned by, this Expedition as may be of use to
the future explorer.
APSLEY CHERRY-GARRARD.
PREFACE
This post-war business is inartistic, for it is seldom that any one does
anything well for the sake of doing it well; and it is un-Christian, if
you value Christianity, for men are out to hurt and not to help--can you
wonder, when the Ten Commandments were hurled straight from the pulpit
through good stained glass. It is all very interesting and uncomfortable,
and it has been a great relief to wander back in one's thoughts and
correspondence and personal dealings to an age in geological time, so
many hundred years ago, when we were artistic Christians, doing our jobs
as well as we were able just because we wished to do them well, helping
one another with all our strength, and (I speak with personal humility)
living a life of co-operation, in the face of hardships and dangers,
which has seldom been surpassed.
The mutual conquest of difficulties is the cement of friendship, as it is
the only lasting cement of matrimony. We had plenty of difficulties; we
sometimes failed, we sometimes won; we always faced them--we had to.
Consequently we have some friends who are better than all the wives in
Mahomet's paradise, and when I have asked for help in the making of this
book I have never never asked in vain. Talk of ex-soldiers: give me
ex-antarcticists, unsoured and with their ideals intact: they could sweep
the world.
The trouble is that they are inclined to lose their ideals in this
complicated atmosphere of civilization. They run one another down like
the deuce, and it is quite time that stopped. What is the use of A
running down Scott because he served with Shackleton, or B going for
Amundsen because he served with Scott? They have all done good work;
within their limits, the best work to date. There are jobs for which, if
I had to do them, I would like to serve under Scott, Amundsen, Shackleton
and Wilson--each to his part. For a joint scientific and geographical
piece of organization, give me Scott; for a Winter Journey, Wilson; for a
dash to the Pole and nothing else, Amundsen: and if I am in the devil of
a hole and want to get out of it, give me Shackleton every time. They
will all go down in polar history as leaders, these men. I believe Bowers
would also have made a great name for himself if he had lived, and few
polar ships have been commanded as capably as was the Terra Nova, by
Pennell.
In a way this book is a sequel to the friendship which there was between
Wilson, Bowers and myself, which, having stood the strain of the Winter
Journey, could never have been broken. Between the three of us we had a
share in all the big journeys and bad times which came to Scott's main
landing party, and what follows is, particularly, our unpublished
diaries, letters and illustrations. I, we, have tried to show how good
the whole thing was--and how bad. I have had a freer hand than many in
this, because much of the dull routine has been recorded already and can
be found if wanted: also because, not being the leader of the expedition,
I 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 deg. 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 DEPOT 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 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 debris 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 of Waterloo there was still an undiscovered continent in the
South.
For those who wish to read an account of the history of Antarctic
exploration there is an excellent chapter in Scott's Voyage of the
Discovery and elsewhere. I do not propose to give any general survey of
this kind here, but complaints have been made to me that Scott's Last
Expedition plunges the general reader into a neighbourhood which he is
supposed to know all about, while actually he is lost, having no idea
what the Discovery was, or where Castle Rock or Hut Point stand. For the
better understanding of the references to particular expeditions, to the
lands discovered by them and the traces left by them, which must occur in
this book I give the following brief introduction.
From the earliest days of the making of maps of the Southern Hemisphere
it was supposed that there was a great continent called Terra Australis.
As explorers penetrated round the Cape of Good Hope and Cape Horn, and
found nothing but stormy oceans beyond, and as, later, they discovered
Australia and New Zealand, the belief in this continent weakened, but was
not abandoned. During the latter half of the eighteenth century eagerness
for scientific knowledge was added to the former striving after
individual or State aggrandizement.
Cook, Ross and Scott: these are the aristocrats of the South.
It was the great English navigator James Cook who laid the foundations of
our knowledge. In 1772 he sailed from Deptford in the Resolution, 462
tons, and the Adventure, 336 tons, ships which had been built at Whitby
for the coal trade. He was, like Nansen, a believer in a varied diet as
one of the preventives of scurvy, and mentions that he had among his
provisions "besides Saur Krout, Portable Broth, Marmalade of Carrots and
Suspissated juice of Wort and Beer." Medals were struck "to be given to
the natives of new discovered countries, and left there as testimonies of
our being the first discoverers."[1] It would be interesting to know
whether any exist now.
After calling at the Cape of Good Hope Cook started to make his Easting
down to New Zealand, purposing to sail as far south as possible in search
of a southern continent. He sighted his first 'ice island' or iceberg in
lat. 50 deg. 40' S., long. 2 deg. 0' E., on December 10, 1772. The next day he
"saw some white birds about the size of pigeons, with blackish bills and
feet. I never saw any such before."[2] These must have been Snowy Petrel.
Passing through many bergs, where he notices how the albatross left them
and penguins appeared, he was brought up by thick pack ice along which he
coasted. Under the supposition that this ice was formed in bays and
rivers Cook was led to believe that land was not far distant.
Incidentally he remarks that in order to enable his men to support the
colder weather he "caused the sleeves of their jackets (which were so
short as to expose their arms) to be lengthened with baize; and had a cap
made for each man of the same stuff, together with canvas; which proved
of great service to them."[3]
For more than a month Cook sailed the Southern Ocean, always among bergs
and often among pack. The weather was consistently bad and generally
thick; he mentions that he had only seen the moon once since leaving the
Cape.
It was on Sunday, January 17, 1773, that the Antarctic Circle was crossed
for the first time, in longitude 39 deg. 35' E. After proceeding to latitude
67 deg. 15' S. he was stopped by an immense field of pack. From this point he
turned back and made his way to New Zealand.
Leaving New Zealand at the end of 1773 without his second ship, the
Adventure, from which he had been parted, he judged from the great swell
that "there can be no land to the southward, under the meridian of New
Zealand, but what must lie very far to the south." In latitude 62 deg. 10' S.
he sighted the first ice island on December 12, and was stopped by thick
pack ice three days later. On the 20th he again crossed the Antarctic
Circle in longitude 147 deg. 46' W. and penetrated in this neighbourhood to a
latitude of 67 deg. 31' S. Here he found a drift towards the north-east.
On January 26, 1774, in longitude 109 deg. 31' W., he crossed the Antarctic
Circle for the third time, after meeting no pack and only a few icebergs.
In latitude 71 deg. 10' S. he was finally turned back by an immense field of
pack, and wrote:
"I will not say it was impossible anywhere to get farther to the south;
but the attempting it would have been a dangerous and rash enterprise,
and what, I believe, no man in my situation would have thought of. It
was, indeed, my opinion, as well as the opinion of most on board, that
this ice extended quite to the Pole, or perhaps joined to some land, to
which it had been fixed from the earliest time; and that it is here, that
is to the south of this parallel, where all the ice we find scattered up
and down to the north is first formed, and afterwards broken off by gales
of wind, or other causes, and brought to the north by the currents, which
are always found to set in that direction in the high latitudes. As we
drew near this ice some penguins were heard, but none seen; and but few
other birds, or any other thing that could induce us to think any land
was near. And yet I think there must be some to the south beyond this
ice; but if there is it can afford no better retreat for birds, or any
other animals, than the ice itself, with which it must be wholly covered.
I, who had ambition not only to go farther than any one had been before,
but as far as it was possible for man to go, was not sorry at meeting
with this interruption; as it, in some measure, relieved us; at least,
shortened the dangers and hardships inseparable from the navigation of
the Southern Polar regions."[4]
And so he turned northwards, when, being "taken ill of the bilious
colic," a favourite dog belonging to one of the officers (Mr. Forster,
after whom Aptenodytes forsteri, the Emperor penguin, is named) "fell a
sacrifice to my tender stomach.... Thus I received nourishment and
strength, from food which would have made most people in Europe sick: so
true it is that necessity is governed by no law."[5]
"Once and for all the idea of a populous fertile southern continent was
proved to be a myth, and it was clearly shown that whatever land might
exist to the South must be a region of desolation hidden beneath a mantle
of ice and snow. The vast extent of the tempestuous southern seas was
revealed, and the limits of the habitable globe were made known.
Incidentally it may be remarked that Cook was the first to describe the
peculiarities of the Antarctic icebergs and floe-ice."[6]
A Russian expedition under Bellingshausen discovered the first certain
land in the Antarctic in 1819, and called it Alexander Land, which lies
nearly due south of Cape Horn.
Whatever may have been the rule in other parts of the world, the flag
followed trade in the southern seas during the first part of the
nineteenth century. The discovery of large numbers of seals and whales
attracted many hundreds of ships, and it is to the enlightened
instructions of such firms as Messrs. Enderby, and to the pluck and
enterprise of such commanders as Weddell, Biscoe and Balleny, that we owe
much of our small knowledge of the outline of the Antarctic continent.
"In the smallest and craziest ships they plunged boldly into stormy
ice-strewn seas; again and again they narrowly missed disaster; their
vessels were racked and strained and leaked badly, their crews were worn
out with unceasing toil and decimated with scurvy. Yet in spite of
inconceivable discomforts they struggled on, and it does not appear that
any one of them ever turned his course until he was driven to do so by
hard necessity. One cannot read the simple, unaffected narratives of
these voyages without being assured of their veracity, and without being
struck by the wonderful pertinacity and courage which they display."[7]
The position in 1840 was that the Antarctic land had been sighted at a
few points all round its coasts. On the whole the boundaries which had
been seen lay on or close to the Antarctic Circle, and it appeared
probable that the continent, if continent it was, consisted of a great
circular mass of land with the South Pole at its centre, and its coasts
more or less equidistant from this point.
Two exceptions only to this had been found. Cook and Bellingshausen had
indicated a dip towards the Pole south of the Pacific; Weddell a still
more pronounced dip to the south of the Atlantic, having sailed to a
latitude of 74 deg. 15' S. in longitude 34 deg. 16' W.
Had there been a Tetrahedronal Theory in those days, some one might have
suggested the probability of a third indentation beneath the Indian
Ocean, probably to be laughed at for his pains. When James Clark Ross
started from England in 1839 there was no particular reason for him to
suppose that the Antarctic coast-line in the region of the magnetic Pole,
which he was to try to reach, did not continue to follow the Antarctic
Circle.
Ross left England in September 1839 under instructions from the
Admiralty. He had under his command two of Her Majesty's sailing ships,
the Erebus, 370 tons, and the Terror, 340 tons. Arriving in Hobart,
Tasmania, in August 1840, he was met by news of discoveries made during
the previous summer by the French Expedition under Dumont D'Urville and
the United States Expedition under Charles Wilkes. The former had coasted
along Adelie Land, and for sixty miles of ice cliff to the west of it. He
brought back an egg now at Drayton which Scott's Discovery Expedition
definitely proved to be that of an Emperor penguin.
All these discoveries were somewhere about the latitude of the Antarctic
Circle (66 deg. 32' S.) and roughly in that part of the world which lies to
the south of Australia. Ross, "impressed with the feeling that England
had ever _led_ the way of discovery in the southern as well as in the
northern region, ... resolved at once to avoid all interference with
their discoveries, and selected a much more easterly meridian (170 deg. E.),
on which to penetrate to the southward, and if possible reach the
magnetic Pole."[8]
The outlines of the expedition in which an unknown and unexpected sea was
found, stretching 500 miles southwards towards the Pole, are well known
to students of Antarctic history. After passing through the pack he stood
towards the supposed position of the magnetic Pole, "steering as nearly
south by the compass as the wind admitted," and on January 11, 1841, in
latitude 71 deg. 15' S., he sighted, the white peaks of Mount Sabine and
shortly afterwards Cape Adare. Foiled by the presence of land from
gaining the magnetic Pole, he turned southwards (true) into what is now
called the Ross Sea, and, after spending many days in travelling down
this coast-line with the mountains on his right hand, the Ross Sea on his
left, he discovered and named the great line of mountains which here for
some five hundred miles divides the sea from the Antarctic plateau. On
January 27, "with a favourable breeze and very clear weather, we stood to
the southward, close to some land which had been in sight since the
preceding noon, and which we then called the High Island; it proved to be
a mountain twelve thousand four hundred feet of elevation above the level
of the sea, emitting flame and smoke in great profusion; at first the
smoke appeared like snowdrift, but as we drew nearer its true character
became manifest.... I named it Mount Erebus, and an extinct volcano to
the eastward, little inferior in height, being by measurement ten
thousand nine hundred feet high, was called Mount Terror." That is the
first we hear of our two old friends, and Ross Island is the land upon
which they stand.
"As we approached the land under all studding-sails we perceived a low
white line extending from its eastern extreme point as far as the eye
could discern to the eastward. It presented an extraordinary appearance,
gradually increasing in height as we got nearer to it, and proving at
length to be a perpendicular cliff of ice, between one hundred and fifty
and two hundred feet above the level of the sea, perfectly flat and level
at the top, and without any fissures or promontories on its even seaward
face."[9]
Ross coasted along the Barrier for some 250 miles from Cape Crozier, as
he called the eastern extremity of Ross Island, after the commander of
the Terror. This point where land, sea and moving Barrier meet will be
constantly mentioned in this narrative. Returning, he looked into the
Sound which divides Ross Island from the western mountains. On February
16 "Mount Erebus was seen at 2.30 A.M., and, the weather becoming very
clear, we had a splendid view of the whole line of coast, to all
appearance connecting it with the main land, which we had not before
suspected to be the case." The reader will understand that Ross makes a
mistake here, since Mounts Erebus and Terror are upon an island connected
to the mainland only by a sheet of ice. He continues: "A very deep bight
was observed to extend far to the south-west from Cape Bird [Bird was the
senior lieutenant of the Erebus], in which a line of low land might be
seen; but its determination was too uncertain to be left unexplored; and
as the wind blowing feebly from the west prevented our making any way in
that direction through the young ice that now covered the surface of the
ocean in every part, as far as we could see from the mast-head, I
determined to steer towards the bight to give it a closer examination,
and to learn with more certainty its continuity or otherwise. At noon we
were in latitude 76 deg. 32' S., longitude 166 deg. 12' E., dip 88 deg. 24' and
variation 107 deg. 18' E.
"During the afternoon we were nearly becalmed, and witnessed some
magnificent eruptions of Mount Erebus, the flame and smoke being
projected to a great height; but we could not, as on a former occasion,
discover any lava issuing from the crater; although the exhibitions of
to-day were upon a much grander scale....
"Soon after midnight (February 16-17) a breeze sprang up from the
eastward and we made all sail to the southward until 4 A.M., although we
had an hour before distinctly traced the land entirely round the bay
connecting Mount Erebus with the mainland. I named it McMurdo Bay, after
the senior lieutenant of the Terror, a compliment that his zeal and skill
well merited."[10] It is now called McMurdo Sound.
In making the mistake of connecting Erebus with the mainland Ross was
looking at a distance upon the Hut Point Peninsula running out from the
S.W. corner of Erebus towards the west. He probably saw Minna Bluff,
which juts out from the mainland towards the east. Between them, and in
front of the Bluff, lie White Island, Black Island and Brown Island. To
suppose them to be part of a line of continuous land was a very natural
mistake.
Ross broke through the pack ice into an unknown sea: he laid down many
hundreds of miles of mountainous coast-line, and (with further work
completed in 1842) some 400 miles of the Great Ice Barrier: he penetrated
in his ships to the extraordinarily high latitude of 78 deg. 11' S., four
degrees farther than Weddell. The scientific work of his expedition was
no less worthy of praise. The South Magnetic Pole was fixed with
comparative accuracy, though Ross was disappointed in his natural but
"perhaps too ambitious hope I had so long cherished of being permitted to
plant the flag of my country on both the magnetic Poles of our globe."
Before all things he was at great pains to be accurate, both in his
geographical and scientific observations, and his records of meteorology,
water temperatures, soundings, as also those concerning the life in the
oceans through which he passed, were not only frequent but trustworthy.
When Ross returned to England in 1843 it was impossible not to believe
that the case of those who advocated the existence of a South Polar
continent was considerably strengthened. At the same time there was no
proof that the various blocks of land which had been discovered were
connected with one another. Even now in 1921, after twenty years of
determined exploration aided by the most modern appliances, the interior
of this supposed continent is entirely unknown and uncharted except in
the Ross Sea area, while the fringes of the land are only discovered in
perhaps a dozen places on a circumference of about eleven thousand miles.
In his Life of Sir Joseph Hooker, Dr. Leonard Huxley has given us some
interesting sidelights on this expedition under Ross. Hooker was the
botanist of the expedition and assistant surgeon to the Erebus, being 22
years old when he left England in 1839. Natural history came off very
badly in the matter of equipment from the Government, who provided
twenty-five reams of paper, two botanizing vascula and two cases for
bringing home live plants: that was all, not an instrument, nor a book,
nor a bottle, and rum from the ship's stores was the only preservative.
And when they returned, the rich collections which they brought back were
never fully worked out. Ross's special branch of science was terrestrial
magnetism, but he was greatly interested in Natural History, and gave up
part of his cabin for Hooker to work in. "Almost every day I draw,
sometimes all day long and till two and three in the morning, the Captain
directing me; he sits on one side of the table, writing and figuring at
night, and I on the other, drawing. Every now and then he breaks off and
comes to my side, to see what I am after ..." and, "as you may suppose,
we have had one or two little tiffs, neither of us perhaps being helped
by the best of tempers; but nothing can exceed the liberality with which
he has thrown open his cabin to me and made it my workroom at no little
inconvenience to himself."
Another extract from Hooker's letters after the first voyage runs as
follows:
"The success of the Expedition in Geographical discovery is really
wonderful, and only shows what a little perseverance will do, for we have
been in no dangerous predicaments, and have suffered no hardships
whatever: there has been a sort of freemasonry among Polar voyagers to
keep up the credit they have acquired as having done wonders, and
accordingly, such of us as were new to the ice made up our minds for
frost-bites, and attached a most undue importance to the simple operation
of boring packs, etc., which have now vanished, though I am not going to
tell everybody so; I do not here refer to travellers, who do indeed
undergo unheard-of hardships, but to voyagers who have a snug ship, a
little knowledge of the Ice, and due caution is all that is required."
In the light of Scott's leading of the expedition of which I am about to
tell, and the extraordinary scientific activity of Pennell in command of
the Terra Nova after Scott was landed, Hooker would have to qualify a
later extract, "nor is it probable that any future collector will have a
Captain so devoted to the cause of Marine Zoology, and so constantly on
the alert to snatch the most trifling opportunities of adding to the
collection...."
Finally, we have a picture of the secrecy which was imposed upon all with
regard to the news they should write home and the precautions against any
leakage of scientific results. And we see Hooker jumping down the main
hatch with a penguin skin in his hand which he was preparing for himself,
when Ross came up the after hatch unexpectedly. That _has_ happened on
the Terra Nova!
Ross had a cold reception on his return, and Scott wrote to Hooker in
1905:
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