It continues:  “November 12, Lunch time: 

“We have built a cairn—­a 12-foot cairn—­and put a cross made of a pair of skis on it....”  Gran says later, and it is worth quoting:  “When I saw those three poor souls the other day, I just felt that I envied them.  They died having done something great.  How hard death must be for those who meet it having done nothing.”

Atkinson in his account says: 

“We recovered all their gear and dug out the sledge with their belongings on it.  Amongst these were 35 lb. of very important geological specimens which had been collected on the moraines of the Beardmore Glacier:  at Doctor Wilson’s request they had stuck to these up to the very end, even when disaster stared them in the face and they knew that the specimens were so much weight added to what they had to pull....”

The following record was left: 

“November 12, 1912, Latitude 79 degrees, 50 minutes, South.  This cross and cairn are erected over the bodies of Captain Scott, C.V.O., R.N., Doctor E.A.  Wilson, M.B., B.C., Cantab., and Lieutenant H.R.  Bowers, Royal Indian Marine—­a slight token to perpetuate their successful and gallant attempt to reach the Pole.  This they did on January 17, 1912, after the Norwegian Expedition had already done so.  Inclement weather with lack of fuel was the cause of their death.  Also to commemorate their two gallant comrades, Captain L.E.G.  Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons, who walked to his death in a blizzard to save his comrades, about eighteen miles south of this position; also of Seaman Edgar Evans, who died at the foot of the Beardmore Glacier.  ’The Lord gave and the Lord taketh away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’”

This was signed by all the members of the party.

“I decided then to march twenty miles south with the whole of the Expedition and try to find the body of Captain Oates.  For half the day we proceeded south, as far as possible along the line of the previous season’s march.  On one of the old pony walls, which was simply marked by a ridge of the surface of the snow, we found Oates’s sleeping-bag, which they had brought along with them after he had left.

“The next day we proceeded thirteen miles more south, hoping and searching to find his body.  When we arrived at the place where he had left them, we saw that there was no chance of doing so.  The kindly snow had covered his body, giving him a fitting burial.  Here, again, as near to the site of the death as we could judge, we built another cairn to his memory, and placed thereon a small cross and the following record:  ’Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L.E.G.  Oates of the Inniskilling Dragoons.  In March, 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard, to try and save his comrades, beset by hardships.  This note is left by the Relief Expedition of 1912.’”

Atkinson writes also, and it should be inserted most certainly here, referring to their return after hunting for poor Oates’s body: