teau this year in
December was -8.6 deg., the minimum observed being -19.3 deg.. Simpson remarks
that "it must be accounted as one of the wonders of the Antarctic that it
contains a vast area of the earth's surface where the mean temperature
during the warmest month is more than 8 deg. below the Fahrenheit zero, and
when throughout the month the highest temperature was only +5.5 deg. F."[302]
But the mean temperature on the plateau dropped 10 deg. in January to -18.7 deg.,
the minimum observed being -29.7 deg.. These temperatures have to be combined
with the wind force described above to imagine the conditions of the
march. In the light of Scott's previous plateau journey[303] and
Shackleton's Polar Journey[304] this wind was always expected by our
advance parties. But there can be no doubt that the temperature falls as
solar radiation decreases more rapidly than was generally supposed. Scott
probably expected neither such a rapid fall of temperature, nor the very
bad surfaces, though he knew that the plateau would mean a trying time,
and indeed it was supposed that it would be much the hardest part of the
journey.

On the night of January 15, Scott wrote "it ought to be a certain thing
now, and the only appalling possibility the sight of the Norwegian flag
forestalling ours."[305] They were 27 miles from the Pole.

The story of the next three days is taken from Wilson's diary:

"_January 16._ We got away at 8 A.M. and made 7.5 miles by 1.15, lunched,
and then in 5.3 miles came on a black flag and the Norwegians' sledge,
ski, and dog tracks running about N.E. and S.W. both ways. The flag was
of black bunting tied with string to a fore-and-after which had evidently
been taken off a finished-up sledge. The age of the tracks was hard to
guess but probably a couple of weeks--or three or more. The flag was
fairly well frayed at the edges. We camped here and examined the tracks
and discussed things. The surface was fairly good in the forenoon -23 deg.
temperature, and all the afternoon we were coming downhill with again a
rise to the W., and a fall and a scoop to the east where the Norwegians
came up, evidently by another glacier."

[Illustration: AMUNDSEN'S POLHEIM--E. A. Wilson, del.]

"_January 17._ We camped on the Pole itself at 6.30 P.M. this evening. In
the morning we were up at 5 A.M. and got away on Amundsen's tracks going
S.S.W. for three hours, passing two small snow cairns, and then, finding
the tracks too muc