THE START TO THE SOUTH POLE
Brilliant sunshine and a cloudless sky were an auspicious beginning to
the day on which we started upon our attempt to plant the Union Jack,
which the Queen had given us, on the last untrodden spot of the world.
Yet on leaving the hut where we had spent so many months in comfort, we
had a feeling of real regret that never again should we all be together.
The supporting-party started first, and at 10 A.M. we said good-bye
to Murray and Roberts, who were to be left behind, and we four of the
Southern Party followed with an intense desire to do well for the sake
of every one concerned in the Expedition.
Hardly, however, had we been marching for an hour when mishaps began
to occur. First of all Socks went dead lame, and soon afterwards, when
we were halting to feed ourselves and the ponies, Grisi lashed out and
struck Adams just below the knee.
Three inches higher and the blow would have shattered both his knee-cap
and his hopes of reaching the South Pole. As it was the bone was almost
exposed and he was in great pain, although he said very little about
it. What he would have done if he had been completely knocked out it is
impossible to imagine, as his interest in the Expedition was intense.
On October 30 we reached Hut Point and with Adams better, the ponies
recovered from their lameness, and the weather gloriously fine, we
rejoiced to be out at last on the long trail.
Quan fit or unfit was the most mischievous of all the ponies, for when
any one was looking his special delight was to bite his tether, and
unfortunately he did this on one occasion when no one was watching him
and played havoc with the maize and other fodder. When we tried to
catch him he dashed from one sledge to another tearing bags to pieces
and trampling the food out, kicking up his heels and showing that he
was deliberately destructive, for his distended appearance proved that
he had eaten more than his fill.
We left the sea ice on November 3, but instead of finding a better
surface on the Barrier, we discovered that the going was more difficult
than ever. The ponies, however, pulled magnificently and every hour the
pony-leaders changed places with the sledge-haulers. On the next day we
wore goggles, as we were already feeling the trying light, and as soon
as we had passed the end of White Island the surface became softer and
it was trying work for both men and ponies. Still, however, we tramped
along, the supporting-party pulling magnificently, and our march for
the day was over sixteen miles.
Up to this time we had been blessed with fair weather, but on Guy
Fawkes' Day we encountered driving snow which made our steering very
wild. In the bad light the sastrugi could not be seen, and the surface
was very bad for both ponies and men. Minor mishaps were natural under
such conditions, and after Marshall, who was leading Grisi, had got his
legs into a crevasse, and soon afterwards Wild, Adams and Marshall had
got into another crevasse, there was nothing for it but to pitch camp
and wait until the weather cleared.
To our sorrow we had to lie during the whole of the next day in our
sleeping-bags except when we went out of them to feed the ponies, for
a blizzard was upon us with thick drift. One can scarcely realise
how trying it is to be held up by blizzards, unless one has been
on a polar expedition and knows that each lost day means also the
consumption of 40 lb. of pony feed alone. Nevertheless, we endeavoured
to make the best of an irritating situation, and in our one-man
sleeping-bags each of us had a little home, where he could read and
write and look at his household gods--if he had brought any with him.
During the morning I passed the time reading _Much Ado About
Nothing_--an inappropriate play perhaps for me to be reading when I was
worrying over our delay and thought that I had good cause to be.
The blizzard would not have mattered so much if we had only to consider
ourselves, for we could save on the food, but if the ponies were to be
of much use to us they had to be properly fed.
On the 7th the weather was better, though still very thick and
overcast, and cheered by the supporting-party, who were returning to
winter quarters, we started off with the ponies pulling splendidly. But
almost immediately we found ourselves in a maze of crevasses. The first
one which Marshall crossed with Grisi was 6 ft. wide, and when I looked
down there was nothing to be seen but a black yawning void.
Crevasses were here, there, and everywhere, and we had to camp between
two large ones and wait until the light became better, for to proceed
in such weather was to court disaster.
At last we were quite on our own resources, and as regards comfort in
the tents were very well off, for with only two men in each tent there
was plenty of room. Adams began by sharing a tent with me, but we
decided to shift about so that we could take turns with each other as
tent-mates.
[Illustration: The Southern Party marching into the White Unknown,
(_See page 112_)]
In respect to books also we were well supplied, for I took
Shakespeare's Comedies with me, Marshall had Borrow's "The Bible in
Spain," Adams, Arthur Young's "Travels in France," and Wild "Sketches
by Boz." By changing round when we had finished, we had literature
enough to keep us going for many hours when we were unable to march.
No literature, however, could prevent us from chafing at the weather
which kept us in our bags until the morning of November 9, but the
difficulties of travelling over snow and ice in a bad light are
practically insurmountable.
When the light is diffused by clouds or mist, it casts no shadows on
the dead white surface, which consequently appears to the eye to be
uniformly level. Often when we thought that we were marching on a level
surface, we would suddenly fall two or three feet, and the strain on
the eyes under these conditions was very great.
It is, indeed, when the sun is covered and the weather thickish that
one is in danger of snow-blindness, that painful complaint with which
we all became too well acquainted during the southern journey.
The only way to guard against an attack is to wear goggles the whole
time, but when one is perspiring on account of exertion with the
sledges, the glasses fog and they have to be taken off so that they
may be wiped. When they were removed, the glare from the surrounding
whiteness was intense, and the only relief was to get inside a tent,
which was made of a green material very restful to the eyes.
On the night of the 8th the weather cleared, and we saw that we were in
a regular nest of crevasses, Marshall and Wild finding that their tent
was pitched on the edge of a previously unseen one.
To stand in drift for four days with 24° of frost was so bad for the
ponies that we were thankful that their appetites for the hot food we
gave to them was not affected, but we wanted to get under way and put
some good marches in before we could feel really happy.
The distance as the crow flies from our winter quarters to the Pole
is 750 geographical miles and as yet we had only done fifty-one. That
a polar explorer needs a large stock of patience in his equipment is
not to be denied, and as we lay in our bags anxious to be marching yet
unable to move we drew heavy draughts upon our stock.