Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1.djvu/925

Rh May I be there! About this time next year may I be there or thereabouts! With so many young bloods in the heyday of youth and strength beyond my own I feel there will be a most difficult task in making choice towards the end and a most keen competition—and a universal lack of selfishness and self-seeking with a complete absence of any jealous feeling in any single one of the comparatively large number who at present stand a chance of being on the last piece next summer.

It will be an exciting time and the excitement has already begun in the healthiest possible manner. I have never been thrown in with a more unselfish lot of men—each one doing his utmost fair and square in the most cheery manner possible.

As late as October 15 he writes further: ‘No one yet knows who will be on the Summit party: it is to depend on condition, and fitness when we get there.’ It is told of Scott, while still in New Zealand, that being pressed on the point, he playfully said, ‘Well, I should like to have Bill to hold my hand when we get to the Pole’; but the Diary shows how the actual choice was made on the march.

Note 10, p. 124.—Campbell, Levick, and Priestley set off to the old Nimrod hut eight miles away to see if they could find a stove of convenient size for their own hut, as well as any additional paraffin, and in default of the latter, to kill some seals for oil.

Note 11, p. 133.—The management of stores and transport was finally entrusted to Bowers. Rennick therefore remained with the ship. A story told by Lady Scott illustrates the spirit of these men—the expedition first, personal distinctions nowhere. It was in New Zealand and the very day on which the order had been given for Bowers to exchange with Rennick. In the afternoon Captain Scott and his wife were returning from the ship to the house where they were staying; on the hill they saw the two men coming down with arms on each other's shoulders—a fine testimony to both. ‘Upon my word,’ exclaimed Scott, ‘that shows Rennick in a good light!’

Note 12, p. 148.—January 29. The seals have been giving a lot of trouble, that is just to Meares and myself with our dogs. The whole teams go absolutely crazy when they sight them or get wind of them, and there are literally hundreds along some of the cracks. Occasionally when one pictures oneself quite away from trouble of that kind, an old seal will pop his head up at a blowhole a few yards ahead of the team, and they are all on top of him before one can say ‘Knife!’ Then one has to rush in with the whip—and every one of the team of eleven jumps over the harness of the dog next to him and the harnesses become a muddle that takes much patience to unravel, not to mention care lest the whole team should get away with the sledge and its load and