tt to command an Antarctic expedition.

In August 1901, Scott left the shores of England, and by way of New
Zealand crossed the Antarctic Circle on 3rd January 1902. Three weeks
later he reached the Great Ice Barrier which had stopped Ross in 1840.
For a week Scott steamed along the Barrier. Mounts Erebus and Terror
were plainly visible, and though he could nowhere discover Parry
Mountains, yet he found distant land rising high above the sea, which
he named King Edward VII.'s Land. Scott had brought with him a captive
balloon in which he now rose to a height of eight hundred feet, from
which he saw an unbroken glacier stream of vast extent stretching to
the south. It was now time to seek for winter quarters, and Scott,
returning to McMurdo Bay named by Ross, found that it was not a bay
at all, but a strait leading southward. Here they landed their stores,
set up their hut, and spent the winter, till on 2nd November 1902 all
was ready for a sledge-journey to the south. For fifty-nine days Scott
led his little land-party of three, with four sledges and nineteen
dogs, south. But the heavy snow was too much for the dogs, and one
by one died, until not one was left and the men had to drag and push
the sledges themselves. Failing provisions at last compelled them to
stop. Great mountain summits were seen beyond the farthest point
reached.

"We have decided at last we have found something which is fitting to
bear the name of him whom we most delight to honour," says Scott, "and
Mount Markham it shall be called in memory of the father of the
expedition."

It was 30th December when a tremendous blizzard stayed their last
advance. "Chill and hungry," they lay all day in their sleeping-bags,
miserable at the thought of turning back, too weak and ill to go on.
With only provisions for a fortnight, they at last reluctantly turned
home, staggering as far as their depot in thirteen days. Shackleton
was smitten with scurvy; he was growing worse every day, and it was
a relief when on 2nd February they all reached the ship alive, "as
near spent as three persons can well be." But they had done well: they
had made the first long land journey ever made in the Antarctic; they
had reached a point which was farthest south; they had tested new
methods of travel; they had covered nine hundred and sixty miles in
ninety-three days. Shackleton was now invalided home, but it was not
till 1904 that the _Discovery_ escaped from the frozen harbour t