It was arranged beforehand that a relief ship should visit and communicate with the expedition in the following year.

The first ice was met with in the neighbourhood of the Antarctic Circle on January 1, 1902, and a few days later the open Ross Sea was reached.  After several landings had been made at Cape Adare and other points, the Discovery made a very interesting examination of the Barrier to the eastward.  At this part of the voyage King Edward VII.  Land was discovered, but the thick ice-floes prevented the expedition from landing.  On the way back the ship entered the same bight that Borchgrevink had visited in 1900, and a balloon ascent was made on the Barrier.  The bay was called Balloon Inlet.

From here the ship returned to McMurdo Bay, so named by Ross.  Here the Discovery wintered, in a far higher latitude than any previous expedition.  In the course of the autumn it was discovered that the land on which the expedition had its winter quarters was an island, separated from the mainland by McMurdo Sound.  It was given the name of Ross Island.

Sledge journeys began with the spring.  Depots were laid down, and the final march to the South was begun on November 2, 1902, by Scott, Shackleton, and Wilson.

They had nineteen dogs to begin with.  On November 27 they passed the 80th parallel.  Owing to the nature of the ground their progress was not rapid; the highest latitude was reached on December 30 —­ 82deg. 17’ S. New land was discovered —­ a continuation of South Victoria Land.  One summit after another rose higher and higher to the south.

The return journey was a difficult one.  The dogs succumbed one after another, and the men themselves had to draw the sledges.  It went well enough so long as all were in health; but suddenly Shackleton was incapacitated by scurvy, and there were only two left to pull the sledges.

On February 3 they reached the ship again, after an absence of ninety-three days.

Meanwhile Armitage and Skelton had reached, for the first time in history, the high Antarctic inland plateau at an altitude of 9,000 feet above the sea.

The relief ship Morning had left Lyttelton on December 9.  On her way south Scott Island was discovered, and on January 25 the Discovery’s masts were seen.  But McMurdo Sound lay icebound all that year, and the Morning returned home on March 3.

The expedition passed a second winter in the ice, and in the following spring Captain Scott led a sledge journey to the west on the ice plateau.  In January, 1904, the Morning returned, accompanied by the Terra Nova, formerly a Newfoundland sealing vessel.  They brought orders from home that the Discovery was to be abandoned if she could not be got out.  Preparations were made for carrying out the order, but finally, after explosives had been used, a sudden break-up of the ice set the vessel free.