[14] The party had made a short cut where in going out with the ponies they had made an elbow, and so had passed within this ‘danger line.’

[15] Bowers, Oates, and Gran, with the five ponies.  The two days had after all brought them to Safety Camp.

[16] This was at a point on the Barrier, one-half mile from the edge, in a S.S.E. direction from Hut Point.

[17] I.e. by land, now that the sea ice was out.

[18] Because the seals would cease to come up.

[19] As a step towards ‘getting these things clearer’ in his mind two spare pages of the diary are filled with neat tables, showing the main classes into which rocks are divided, and their natural subdivisions—­the sedimentary, according to mode of deposition, chemical, organic, or aqueous; the metamorphic, according to the kind of rock altered by heat; the igneous, according to their chemical composition.

[20] Viz, Simpson, Nelson, Day, Ponting, Lashly, Clissold, Hooper, Anton, and Demetri.

[21] See Chapter X.

[22] The white dogs.

[23] I.e. in relation to a sledging ration.

[24] Officially the ponies were named after the several schools which had subscribed for their purchase:  but sailors are inveterate nicknamers, and the unofficial humour prevailed.  See Appendix, Note 18.

[25] Captain Scott’s judgment was not at fault.

[26] I.e. a crack which leaves the ice free to move with the movements of the sea beneath.

[27] This was the gale that tore away the roofing of their hut, and left them with only their sleeping-bags for shelter.  See p. 365.

[28] Prof.  T. Edgeworth David, of Sydney University, who accompanied Shackleton’s expedition as geologist.

[29] See Vol.  II., Dr. Simpson’s Meteorological Report.

[30] This form of motor traction had been tested on several occasions; in 1908 at Lauteret in the Alps, with Dr. Charcot the Polar explorer:  in 1909 and again 1910 in Norway.  After each trial the sledges were brought back and improved.

[31] The Southern Barrier Depot.

[32] Camp 31 received the name of Shambles Camp.

[33] While Day and Hooper, of the ex-motor party, had turned back on November 24, and Meares and Demetri with the dogs ascended above the Lower Glacier Depot before returning on December 11, the Southern Party and its supports were organised successively as follows: 

    December 10, leaving Shambles Camp—­
        Sledge 1.  Scott, Wilson, Oates and P.O.  Evans.
        Sledge 2.  E. Evans, Atkinson, Wright, Lashly.
        Sledge 3.  Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Crean, Keohane. 
    December 21 at Upper Glacier Depot—­
        Sledge 1.  Scott, Wilson, Oates, P.O.  Evans.
        Sledge 2.  E. Evans, Bowers, Crean, Lashly, while Atkinson,
                    Wright, Cherry-Garrard and Keohane returned. 
    January 4, 150 miles from the Pole—­
        Sledge 1.  Scott, Wilson, Oates, Bowers, P.O.  Evans;
                    while E. Evans, Crean, and Lashly returned.