dded to the alarm we already felt
about Campbell and his men; winter was fast closing down, and the weather
was bad. So little could be done by two men. What was to be done? When
was it to be done with the greatest possible chance of success? Added to
all his greater anxieties Atkinson had me on his hands--and I was pretty
ill.

In the end he made two attempts.

The first with one seaman, Keohane, to sledge out on to the Barrier,
leaving on March 26. They found the conditions very bad, but reached a
point a few miles south of Corner Camp and returned. Soon after we knew
the Southern Party must be dead.

Nothing more could be done until communication was effected with Winter
Quarters at Cape Evans. This was done by a sledge journey over the newly
frozen ice in the bays on April 10. Help arrived at Hut Point on April
14.

The second attempt was then made, and this consisted of a party of four
men who tried to sledge up the Western Coast in order to meet and help
Campbell if he was trying to sledge to us. This plucky attempt failed, as
indeed it was practically certain it would.

The story of the winter that followed will be told, and of the decision
which had to be taken to abandon either the search for the Polar Party
(who must be dead) and their records, or Campbell and his men (who might
be alive). There were not enough men left to do both. We believed that
the Polar Party had come to grief through scurvy, or through falling into
a crevasse--the true solution never occurred to us, for we felt sure that
except for accident or disease they could find their way home without
difficulty. We decided to leave Campbell to find his way unaided down the
coast, and to try and find the Polar Party's records. To our amazement we
found their snowed-up tent some 140 geographical miles from Hut Point,
only 11 geographical miles from One Ton Camp. They had arrived there on
March 19. Inside the tent were the bodies of Scott, Wilson and Bowers.
Oates had willingly walked out to his death some eighteen miles before in
a blizzard. Seaman Evans lay dead at the bottom of the Beardmore Glacier.

* * * * *

Having found the bodies and the records the Search Party returned,
proposing to make their way up the Western Coast in search of Campbell.
On arrival at Hut Point with the dog-teams, I must have gone to open the
hut door and found pinned on to it a note in Campbell's handwriting; but
my recollection of