The Mena weekly star., 1913-11-13

think he began to get weaker jus before we reached the pole. The downward path was accelerated first by the shock of the frost bitter fingers, later by falls during thC rough travelling on the glacier, anC further by the loss of confidence il himself. Wilson thinks it certain he must have injured his brain b! his fall.
 Tt is a terrible thing to lose { companion in this way, but cain reflection shows that there coulC not have been a better ending to the terrible anxiety of the last week We were in desperate pass with 6 sick man on our hands at such 6 distance from home"
 Then Captain Oates Failed.
 Captain Oates did not begin to fail until March 3, when he reluctantly admitted that his feet were frost bitten. March Scott expressed the fear that Oates would not survive the increased cold. March : he writes:
 Poor Oates is unable to pull. He
 sits in the sledges when we are track searching. He is wonder
 fully plucky, as his feet must be giving great pain. He does not complain, but his spirits only come up in spurts. He now grows silent in the tent. The poor soldier has become a terrible hindrance, though he does his ut most. One feels that for poor Oates the crisis is near.
 March 10 Scott wrote:
 Things are steadily going down hill. Oates foot is worse. He has rare pluck. He must know he can never get through. He asked Will son if he had a chance. Wilson had to say he did not know. As a point of fact, Oates had none. At the same time poor Oates is the greatest hindrance and keeps us waiting in the morning until we have breakfast, when the only wise policy is to be up and away at once.
 Ready for Suicide.
 March If Scott wrote:
 Oates is very near the end, one feels. What we or he will do, God only knows. We discussed the matter after breakfast. He is a brave fellow and understands the situation, but he practically asked for advice. Nothing could be said but to urge him to march as long as he could.
 One satisfactory result of the discussion was that I practically ordered Wilson to hand over the means to us of ending our trOu- bles, so that any one of us may know how to do so. Wilson had no choice between doing so and our ransacking his medicine caset
 We have thirty opium tablets piece and Wilson is left with a | ube of morphine.
 This tragic decision was revoked, or in the last entry but one in the iary Scott wrote:
 We must be near the end. I have decided it shall be natural. | We shall march for the depot | with or without our effects and die in our tracks. A perusal of the diaries leaves no Ioubt that the discovery of Captain triumph depressed the ntire party to such an extent that 1. must be reckoned as part cause f the disaster. A typical entry is:
 The Norwegians forestalled us It is a terrible disappointment. T am very sorry for my loyal com panions. We must hasten home with all the speed we can com pass. All the day dreams must go. It is a wearisome return. Well, we must turn our back now on the goal of our ambition and must face our eight hundred miles of solid dragging-a desperate strug- gle. I wonder if we can do it. Scott Knew They Were Doomed. This is the first note of despOn- lency. Thereafter they are fairly requent. For nearly a month be- ore the end the despondency is all most unrelieved. Although he kept he knowledge to himself, it seems 'vident that Captain Scott knew hat all were doomed.
 Dr. Atkinsons report concludes:
 I bid a final farewell to the resting place of three heroes, there alone in their greatness They will lie without change or bodily decay with the most fit ting tomb in the world above them.
 In addition to his diary, when dy- ng, Captain Scott wrote letters to friends and relatives. An extract rom his last letter to his wife is:
 Make our boy interested in nat ural history if you can. It is bet ter than games. Keep him in the open air. Above all, you must guard him against indolence. Make him a strenuous man. The great God has called me. Take comfort in that I die in peace with the world and myself, and