WORLD'S WORST JOURNEY.

Northern Advocate, 19 April 1923, Page 7

WORLD'S WORST JOURNEY.

MEiST WHO FACED DEATH. FOR THREE EGGS! "Had wc lived, I should have had a talc to tell of the hardihood, endurance, and courage of my companions which would have stirred the heart of every Englishman. These rough notes and our dead bodies must tell the tale." So wrote Scott, the great explorer, when on the return journey from the South Pole, he and bis companions were caught in a blizzard and perished. The world lost Scott's full account of •his own 'epic feat, but it has gained another wonderful narrative —'the story of how three other members of Scott's party made a journey under the most severe conditions imaginable, endured sufferings almost worse than those ex-, perienced by the Polar party itself, and all for —what? For three penguins' eggs! / The details of this heroic undertaking, which was carried out with the j object of learning more about the penguin, arc related by Mr Apsley CherryGarrard in "Th e Worst Journey in the World," an account of Scott's last Antarctic expedition, 1910-13, especially of the winter, polar, and search journeys. The winter journey was that made by the author and two companions for the eggs; the polar journey the one undertaken by Scott, with his picked men, to the Pole; and the search journey that- which went to look for Scott when he failed to return, Th 0 winter journey, which was to last six was from Cape Crozier, where the penguins' nests yore. It was necessary to make the trip in midwinter/ as later the eggs would be hatched. < The way lay over the frozen ses. and the great Ice Barrier. "The horror of the nineteen days it took us to travel from Cape Evans to Cape Crozier (the outward journey) would have to be experienced to be appreciated," writes Mr Cherry-Garrard. "It is not possible to describe it. . . 'I for one had come to that point of suffering at which I did not really care if only I could die without much pain. 'They talk of the heroism of the dying—they little know —it would be so easy to die. . . The troiiblc is to go on. . ." Nearly all the time the temperature was below zero. At one period over 77 degrees below zero were registered — 109+ degrees of frost. The trouble was that sweat from th ( > body froze and accumulated. It passed .just away from the flesh and then became ice.

' One can try to imagine what it must have ibeen like struggling on. through snow blizzards with clothing covered inside as well as outside with ice! When they got into their sleeping bags the snow and ice melted, arid they had to lie all night in the water thus formed. Once, going from the comparatively warm tent to th e outside, the author raised his head to look round, and found he could not move it back. His clothing had frozen hard as he stood— in fifteen seconds! For four hours he had to pull the sledge with his head stuck up_ and from, that time they all took care to bend down into a pulling position before being frozen in. After a few days the party were travelling in perpetual darkness. They had to use candles to light their way. Progress in the dark was painfully slow. Fresh falls of snow made the going difficult, and they had to relay —pulling one sledge ahead and going back for the other. The ninth day they covered 1$ mile;'the tenth, mile; and the eleventh, 1$ mile. They considered these quite good marches — and Cap P Crozier is sixty-seven miles from Cape Evans, the journey there and back being 134 miles! After nineteen days of struggling they reached their final camp, which was within a short distance of the penguins' nests, and they proceeded to build an igloo. The oil question vas worrying them a lot, for they were ?iOw well into the fifth of the .six tins *"hey had brought. If the oil gave out there would be no more hot food, and that meant the end. They made an attempt to reach the penguins, but without success, having to traverse enormous crevasses and cliffs. Next day they made another journey and .were successful. Five oggs wore secured, but two broke on the way back to the igloo. They then moved from their tent, which had been their "home" each night, to the igloo just as a terrible blizzard was on the way. At last the blizzard burst. "Ten minutes and it was blowing as though the world was having a fit of hysterics. The earth was torn in pieces; the Indescribable roar and fury of it all cannot 'be imagined.'' The tent was blown away, and then part the igloo colla.psed. For hours they lay in thoir sleeping bags, believing every moment was to be their last. It was two days and two nights before they got a meal. By this time the spirits of the party were at the lowest ebb, for they knew that without the tent they could never roach safety. But luck was with them,

for after the 'blizzard they found the tent about' half a mile away. They were tired, hungry, frozen, anl /frost-bitten. "The horrorsi of that TOturn journey are blurred to my memory, " writes Mr 'Cherry-Garrard, "and I know that they were blurred to my body at the time. I think this applies to all .of us, for we were much weakened and callous. . . .1 know chat the bags were so full of ice that we did ~ not worry if we spilt water or hoosh over them. . . .This journey had beggared our Language; ro words could express its horror." They reached Cape Evans safely, but it was a long time before they all recovered. The three eggs were eventually taken to London, examined, and placed in the Natural History Museum. Mr Cherry-Garrard's two cam parr, on? on the march —Dr. Wilson tim! Bowers —were two of the party who perished with 'Scott on the return • from the South Pole. The whole expedition sennit three ycfaris in th<j Ajntaa-jbtic—three years packed with adventure.