The dogs were frost-bitten, gaunt, and quite unfit for further work that season.  Meantime during the absence of the dog teams, before there was anxiety on Scott’s account, Pennell, responding to Atkinson’s letter for help, brought the “Terra Nova” up towards Hut Point, and a party under Rennick conveyed me in pitiful state to the ship in my sleeping-bag.

I was placed in the Captain’s cabin, and given Drake and Day as nurses.  I owe them a great debt too.  Atkinson had still to remain at my side, for I was even then at death’s door—­and, it is only due to Atkinson’s unremitting care that I am alive to-day.  He came up therefore in the ship and participated in the search for Campbell in the vicinity of Evans’s Coves, but after several unsuccessful attempts the “Terra Nova” temporarily abandoned her objective and returned to Cape Evans on March 4.  Here Keohane was picked up and taken with Atkinson to Hut Point—­Pennell relieved Atkinson of further responsibility on my account and then landed him with Keohane here.  It was impressed on Atkinson that there was very little chance of relieving Campbell with ice conditions as they were.  They laid up a store of seal meat and blubber against the return of Scott’s company, while the ship made another fruitless attempt to relieve Campbell.  She did not return South after this on account of the sea freezing and her own coal shortage, but proceeded back to New Zealand, in accordance with her Commanding Officer’s instructions.  Pennell was not justified in keeping the “Terra Nova” any later in the McMurdo Sound.

Now let us consider poor Atkinson.  He had Dimitri and Cherry-Garrard at Hut Point in a state of collapse—­he had on 16th March the knowledge that the Polar Party were still on the Barrier with a season closing in and a certainty of low temperature—­there was no communication with Cape Evans, for the ice had gone out and left open water between the two positions.  After discussing the situation fully, Atkinson and Keohane started out alone to succour Scott’s party.  It was on March 26 that Atkinson and Keohane set out, this being later in the year than we had sledged in 1911, when it will be remembered we gave up depot-laying on account of the hardship entailed, although we were fresh men and had not undergone the severe test of a long season’s sledge work.  Atkinson could only manage about nine miles daily, he and Keohane got practically no sleep owing to the cold, and they turned homeward after depositing a week’s food supply at Corner Camp, in case it could be made use of.  Atkinson was morally certain that the Polar Party had perished by this time, and, as he states in his record of proceedings ("The last year at Cape Evans, ‘Scott’s Last Expedition,’ Vol.  II."), Scott’s last diary entry was made before he and Keohane reached Corner Camp.  Atkinson arrived back at Hut Point on April 1, 1912, utterly worn out, and in great concern on Campbell’s account, for the Northern party were known to be somewhere