Abstract
CAPTAIN SCOTT'S last journal has the deep interest of one of the most tragic documents in the history of exploration, for the fate of his party on its return from its magnificent and successful journey will surround his name with the romance that immortalises those of Franklin and of Burke and Wills. The human interest of Captain Scott's journals is greater than the geographical, for his route by the Beardmore Glacier was the same as that of Shackleton to one hundred miles from the Pole, and the remainder of the route was over a plateau with no special features, of interest apart from its position. The reader therefore naturally hurries through the accounts of the voyage out, the landing on the middle of the western coast of Ross Island, the depot laying in the first season, the happy life at the winter quarters, and the reports of enthusiastic scientific investigation by the staff. He will read with pleasure the eulogies of Dr. Wilson and the tributes to the capacity and enterprise of all the members of the expedition; and he may note, too, that Captain Scott started greatly preferring ponies to dogs, and that the old Discovery hut was used as an intermediate station on the way to the Barrier; the remarks that it was cold is not surprising, since half its heating apparatus had been left in New Zealand, and the insulating material on which its warmth depended was not I inserted.
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Scott's Last Expedition. In 2 vols. Vol. i., Being: the Journals of Captain R. F. Scott, R.N., C.V.O. Pp. xxvi + 633 + plates. Vol. ii., Being the Reports of the Journeys and the Scientific Work undertaken by Dr. E. A. Wilson and the Surviving Members of the Expedition. Pp. xv+ 534 + plates. Arranged by Leonard Huxley . With a Preface by Sir Clements R. Markham, K.C.B., F.R.S. (London: Smith, Elder and Co., 1913.) Price 42s. net.
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G., J. Captain Scott's Last Expedition 1 . Nature 92, 373–376 (1913). https://doi.org/10.1038/092373c0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/092373c0