Monday, 5 December 1910

Scott

"I pray there may be no more gales," wrote Scott. "We should be nearing the limits of the westerlies, but one cannot be sure for at least two days.... So much depends on fine weather. December ought to be a fine month in the Ross Sea; it always has been, and just now conditions point to fine weather. Well, we must be prepared for anything, but I'm anxious, anxious about these animals of ours." [1]


Amundsen

"The plan for our work on arrival at the Barrier was posted in the chart-house today," Amundsen wrote in his diary. "N[ilsen] has a splendid grasp of the distribution of work, and he is the author of the plan. I have accepted every word; it is perfection itself." [2]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 5 December, 1910, quoted by David Crane in Scott of the Antarctic (New York : Knopf, c2005), p.398.
[2] Roald Amundsen, diary, 5 December, 1910, quoted by Roland Huntford in The Amundsen Photographs (London : Hodder & Stoughton, c1987), p.71.