his values. I think he is the most popular
member of the party, and that is saying much."[138]

And at the end, when Scott himself lay dying, he wrote to Mrs. Wilson:

"I can do no more to comfort you, than to tell you that he died as he
lived, a brave, true man--the best of comrades and staunchest of
friends."[139]

Physically Scott had been a delicate boy but developed into a strong man,
5 feet 9 inches in height, 11 stone 6 lbs. in weight, with a chest
measurement of 391/4 inches. Wilson was not a particularly strong man. On
leaving with the Discovery he was but lately cured of consumption, yet he
went with Scott to his farthest South, and helped to get Shackleton back
alive. Shackleton owed his life to those two. Wilson was of a slimmer,
more athletic build, a great walker, 5 feet 101/2 inches in height, 11
stones in weight, with a chest measurement of 36 inches. He was an ideal
example of my contention, which I believe can be proved many times over
to be a fact, that it is not strength of body but rather strength of will
which carries a man farthest where mind and body are taxed at the same
time to their utmost limit. Scott was 43 years of age at his death, and
Wilson 39.

Bowers was of a very different build. Aged 28, he was only 5 feet 4
inches in height while his chest measurement (which I give more as a
general guide to his physique than for any other reason) was 40 inches,
and his weight 12 stones. He was recommended to Scott by Sir Clements
Markham, who was dining one day with Captain Wilson-Barker on the
Worcester, on which ship Bowers was trained. Bowers was then home from
India, and the talk turned to the Antarctic. Wilson-Barker turned to Sir
Clements in the course of conversation and alluding to Bowers said: "Here
is a man who will be leading one of those expeditions some day."

He lived a rough life after passing from the Worcester into the merchant
service, sailing five times round the world in the Loch Torridon. Thence
he passed into the service of the Royal Indian Marine, commanded a river
gunboat on the Irrawaddy, and afterwards served on H.M.S. Fox, where he
had considerable experience, often in open boats, preventing the
gun-running which was carried on by the Afghans in the Persian Gulf.

Thence he came to us.

It is at any rate a curious fact, and it may be a significant one, that
Bowers, who enjoyed a greater resistance to cold than any man on this
expedition, joined it direct from one o