Saturday, 2 March 1912

Scott

"Misfortunes rarely come singly." At the Middle Barrier Depot, at 81° 35', they again found a mysterious shortage of oil. "Titus Oates disclosed his feet," wrote Scott, "the toes showing very bad indeed, evidently bitten by the late temperatures. The third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather. It fell below -40° in the night, and this morning it took 1 1/2 hours to get our foot gear on, but we got away before eight. We lost cairn and tracks together and made as steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing.... In spite of strong wind and full sail we have only done 5 1/2 miles. We are in a very queer street since there is no doubt we cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly." [1]


Notes:

[1] R.F. Scott, diary, 2 March, 1912, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1.