Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1.djvu/877

1912] and when we got him into the tent quite comatose. He died quietly at 12.30 On discussing the symptom we think he began to get weaker just before we reached the Pole, and that his downward path was accelerated first by the shock of his frostbitten fingers, and later by falls during rough travelling on the glacier, further by his loss of all confidence in himself. Wilson thinks it certain he must have injured his brain by a fall. It is a terrible thing to lose a companion in this way, but calm reflection shows that there could not have been a better ending to the terrible anxieties of the past week. Discussion of the situation at lunch yesterday shows us what a desperate pass we were in with a sick man on our hands at such a distance from home.

At 1 we packed up and came down over the pressure ridges, finding our depôt easily.