Semi-weekly herald., 1913-02-17
drsn and wife. And then acros. iii.

dren and wife. And then across this
bright horizon Of hope and longing,
just across the lowest corner, the
shadow Of defeat, indeed, perhaps
death. appeared.
II was horrible and of course a
brave sririt like that of Scott's would
nc, for Il second tolerate the presence
of such vision. He was used to
har, things and he brushed thor sside
as he had brushed other encro aching
peril as,oe many times before. But
the black shadow kept sweeping up
over that bright horizon ahead.
First Of all, as | picture it, scurvy
that most horrible of all diseases,
began to attack the returning victors.
They had been cutting down on food
because they had perhaps not taken
adequate supplies in the first place.
owing to the fact that they them
selves were dragging the loaded
sledges. This lack of sufficient nour-
ishment, coupled with the expected
hardships of trekking through an ice
bound land, reduced their resistance
and quite naturally scurvy followed.
| suggest this because Captain Evans
of the Terra Nova party was attacked
by the scurvy a few days after his
return. This showed that the germs
were present. Starved constitutions
were all that was necessary to give
these headway.
The scurvy, the MOTTO o-be-conceived-
of cold and low provisions began their
deadly work. The scurvy Stacked the
circulation. The blood, heavy with
poison, did not do its work and the
cold penetrated right through. One
of the men finally fell exhausted.
There were no dogs to pull him on
the now nearly emptied sledges. The
other four men, themselves all suf-
fering terribly from disease, from cold
and hunger, attempted to save their
companion by drawing him across the
snow. The burden was almost too
much, but they were brave men and
they staggered on. They must reach
their provision depot. There they
would find food, raiment-enough and
to spare-and they would pitch their
tents and regain their strength. And
then-home!
On and on, sick, freezing and stary-
ing. they staggered over the binding
glare Of eternal ice and snow-look-
ing. looking always looking for that
provision depot, that life saver. But
1t never came. At last the truth must
have flashed across them-they had
missed it!
But still they went on, all now per-
haps, were being consumed by the
scurvy and were absolutely without
food. Parts Of their bodies we're al
most continuously frozen. The suf-
fering must have been horrible. | am
conservative when | say that it must
have been the most horrible tragedy
that has ever taken place in n re-
g.on where tragedies are almost conf
E.onplace
And then one day, when it seemed
help must come-a great blizzard that
Scott, to whom billiards as a general
thing were little more than vernal
lephyrs, had ever encountered. 1t was
too much for these tempest tossed,
disease-eaten freezing, starving men.
So they pitched their little tent In the
middle Of the blizzard-to die'
And there they found them--hud-
died together, frozen, starved and
sickened to death.
But their deaths are more trium-
| phant than most of our lives. Fer
they left records-Captain Scott left
a record for honesty, for sincerity. for
bravery, for everything that makes a
man-and this to me is greater than
even having discovered the pole.
| tSigned) ROALD AMUNDSEN.