14 August, 1911

We have had two delightfully calm days since the storm passed through. We have taken the opportunity to exercise the ponies when there are a few hours of light at midday. Clissold has taken two of the dogs in hand and drove them out to Cape Royds yesterday with 100lbs of biscuit; they did well, considering Meares had written them off.

We had a splendidly successful balloon  ascent yesterday. Nelson and Atkinson are doing good work.

My afternoon walk has become a great pleasure; everything is beautiful in this half light and the northern sky grows redder as the light wanes.

11 August, 1911

I wish I could tell you the story Oates ended his lecture with last night! It was very funny indeed but quite unprintable so you'll never know.

The blizzard we expected came in the night; it is still blowing hard.

My thought creep much back to the temperate climes of England, where the midsummer must be lovely.

10 August, 1911

The Soldier is going to give his lecture tonight on Horse Management.

I suppose he shall address our concerns regarding picketing and snow blindness.

I don't feel much like writing lately.

6 August, 1911

The day started overcast. Chalky is an excellent adjective to describe the appearance of our outlook when the light is much diffused and shadows poor; the scene is dull and flat.

In the afternoon the sky cleared, the moon over Erebus gave a straw color to the dissipating clouds. The evening air is full of ice crystals.

The Crozier Party show no signs of scurvy. If the preserved foods had tended to promote the disease, the length of time and the severity of conditions would certainly have brought it out. I think we should be safe on the long journey.

Of course, even though I wrote "if" above, I shall not consider the possibility that scurvy is promoted by any other cause.

I have had several little chats with Wilson on the happenings of the journey. He says there is no doubt Cherry felt the conditions most severely, though he was not only without complaint, but continuously anxious to help others.

Apropos, we both conclude that it is the younger people that have the worst time; Gran, our youngest member (23) is a very clear example, and now Cherry-Garrard at 26.

Wilson (39) says he never felt cold less than he does now; I suppose that between 30-40 is the best all-around age. Bowers is a wonder of course. He is 29. When past the forties it is encouraging to remember that Peary was 52!

5 August, 1911

The sky has continued to wear a disturbed appearance, but so far nothing has come of it. A good deal of light snow has been falling today; a brisk northerly breeze is drifting it along, giving a very strange yet beautiful effect in the north, where the strong red twilight filters through the haze.

Simpson lectured last night on meteorology. It was rather complex. I shan't bore you with it.

Bowers turns out to have been quite the champion; after they lost their tent, he commenced to tie it to his person so that should it blow away again, he'd go with it!

3rd August, 1911

Looks like a gale is coming on. No two of our blizzards have been preceded by the same weather so it is impossible to predict them. The low temperatures experienced by the Crozier Party have naturally led to speculation about Amundsen and his Norwegians. If they have had as poor weather, they will have had a pretty bad winter and it is difficult to see how his dogs could have survived.

I wonder also about Campbell's party. What of them? I don't even know where they are!

2nd August, 1911

The Crozier Party returned last night after enduring for five weeks the hardest conditions on record. They looked more weather-worn than anyone I have yet seen.

Here they are having some much-needed food.

Their faces are scarred and wrinkled, their eyes dull, their hands whitened and creased with the constant exposure to damp and cold, yet the scars of frostbite are very few.

This morning after a good night's sleep Wilson is thin but his old wiry self; Bowers is much himself; and Cherry is still puffy and worn. It is evident he has suffered most severely.

Bowers has come through the best, all things considered, and I believe he is the hardest traveler that ever undertook a Polar journey, as well as one of the most undaunted...due to his untiring energy and the astonishing physique which enables him to continue to work under conditions which are absolutely paralysing to others. Never was such a sturdy, active, undefeatable little man.

I must bear this in mind for the Pole.

Their story beggars belief. No civilized being has ever encountered such conditions before with only a tent of thin canvas to rely on for shelter. And they nearly lost it in a storm! They certainly would have perished had they not by chance found it.

They reached their destination but were only able to bring three intact penguin eggs back -- the rest crushed or lost. Wilson is disappointed that there were so few in the rookery this season; he had expected many more. The Natural History Museum shall without doubt be profoundly grateful for their efforts; I should like to see the looks on their faces when we deliver such treasure into their hands, knowing as we do what a triumph of human spirit was called upon to procure them!

That men should wander forth in the depth of a Polar night to face the most dismal cold and the fiercest gales in darkness is something new; that they should have persisted in this effort in spite of every adversity for five full weeks is heroic. It makes a tale for our generation which I hope may not be lost in the telling. Already Cherry is referring to it as "The Worst Journey in the World"!

Here are the weights for their sleeping bags, which should give you some idea of the trial they endured. They gather ice from perspiration and breath which freezes solid.

Wilson, reindeer and eiderdown: Starting weight = 17lbs; Final weight = 40lbs

Bowers, reindeer only: Starting weight = 17lbs; Final weight = 33lbs

Cherry, reindeer and eiderdown: Starting weight = 18; Final weight = 45lbs

The tent weighed 35lbs upon starting, and 60lbs on return.

They recorded temperatures of -77 degrees, with -109 degrees of frost!!

Although Wilson says the gear is "excellent," one continues to winder as to the possibilities of fur clothing as made by the Esquimaux, with a sneaking feeling that it may outclass our more civilized garb. For us this can only be a matter of speculation, as it would have been quite impossible to have obtained such articles.

The Norwegians probably have some though.

Lashly took the opportunity to give poor Cherry a haircut while he slept. It was the most tender gesture imaginable.