and the lessons which their experiences teach
for our future guidance.

Wilson is very thin, but this morning very much his keen, wiry
self--Bowers is quite himself to-day. Cherry-Garrard is slightly
puffy in the face and still looks worn. It is evident that he has
suffered most severely--but Wilson tells me that his spirit never
wavered for a moment. Bowers has come through best, all things
considered, and I believe he is the hardest traveller that ever
undertook a Polar journey, as well as one of the most undaunted;
more by hint than direct statement I gather his value to the party,
his untiring energy and the astonishing physique which enables him
to continue to work under conditions which are absolutely paralysing
to others. Never was such a sturdy, active, undefeatable little man.

So far as one can gather, the story of this journey in brief is much
as follows: The party reached the Barrier two days after leaving
C. Evans, still pulling their full load of 250 lbs. per man; the
snow surface then changed completely and grew worse and worse as they
advanced. For one day they struggled on as before, covering 4 miles,
but from this onward they were forced to relay, and found the half
load heavier than the whole one had been on the sea ice. Meanwhile
the temperature had been falling, and now for more than a week the
thermometer fell below -60 deg.. On one night the minimum showed -71 deg.,
and on the next -77 deg., 109 deg. of frost. Although in this truly fearful
cold the air was comparatively still, every now and again little puffs
of wind came eddying across the snow plain with blighting effect. No
civilised being has ever encountered such conditions before with only
a tent of thin canvas to rely on for shelter. We have been looking
up the records to-day and find that Amundsen on a journey to the
N. magnetic pole in March encountered temperatures similar in degree
and recorded a minimum of 79 deg.; but he was with Esquimaux who built
him an igloo shelter nightly; he had a good measure of daylight;
the temperatures given are probably 'unscreened' from radiation, and
finally, he turned homeward and regained his ship after five days'
absence. Our party went outward and remained absent for _five weeks_.

It took the best part of a fortnight to cross the coldest region,
and then rounding C. Mackay they entered the wind-swept area. Blizzard
followed blizzard, the sky was constantly overcast and they staggered
on in a lig