two dog-teams. The first time they journeyed out and back
in two days and a night, returning on October 15; and another very
similar run was made before the end of the month.

The motor party was to start first, but was delayed until October 24.
They were to wait for us in latitude 80 deg. 30', man-hauling certain loads
on if the motors broke down. The two engineers were Day and Lashly, and
their two helpers, who steered by pulling on a rope in front, were
Lieutenant Evans and Hooper. Scott was "immensely eager that these
tractors should succeed, even though they may not be of great help to our
Southern advance. A small measure of success will be enough to show their
possibilities, their ability to revolutionize polar transport."[180]

Lashly, as the reader may know by now, was a chief stoker in the Navy,
and accompanied Scott on his Plateau Journey in the Discovery days. The
following account of the motors' chequered career is from his diary, and
for permission to include here both it and the story of the adventures of
the Second Return Party, an extraordinarily vivid and simple narrative, I
cannot be too grateful.

After the motors had been two days on the sea-ice on their way to Hut
Point Lashly writes on 26th October 1911:

"Kicked off at 9.30; engine going well, surface much better, dropped one
can of petrol each and lubricating oil, lunched about two miles from Hut
Point. Captain Scott and supporting party came from Cape Evans to help us
over blue ice, but they were not required. Got away again after lunch but
was delayed by the other sledge not being able to get along, it is
beginning to dawn on me the sledges are not powerful enough for the work
as it is one continual drag over this sea-ice, perhaps it will improve on
the barrier, it seems we are going to be troubled with engine
overheating; after we have run about three-quarters to a mile it is
necessary to stop at least half an hour to cool the engine down, then we
have to close up for a few minutes to allow the carbrutta to warm up or
we can't get the petrol to vaporize; we are getting new experiences every
day. We arrived at Hut Point and proceeded to Cape Armitage it having
come on to snow pretty thickly, so we pitched our tent and waited for the
other car to come up, she has been delayed all the afternoon and not made
much headway. At 6.30 Mr. Bowers and Mr. Garrard came out to us and told
us to come back to Hut Point for the night, where we all enjoyed