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:

"On the second day we came again to the resting place of the three and
bade them there a final farewell. There alone in their greatness they
will lie without change or bodily decay, with the most fitting tomb in
the world above them."

Atkinson could not have expressed himself more beautifully. My book
should end here, but there is an epilogue to it: it is the illuminating
story of