12 miles, and in the later stages their marches dropped to 4. The depots
were, as stated, some 65 miles apart, but the temperatures fell as they
advanced, instead of rising, as expected, and we find them
recording -46.2 degrees one night. Surfaces were terrible--"like
pulling over desert sand, not the least glide in the world."

Poor Oates's feet and hands were badly frostbitten--he constantly
appealed to Wilson for advice. What should he do, what could he do? Poor,
gallant soldier, we thought such worlds of him. Wilson could only answer
"slog on, just slog on." On March 17, which was Oates's birthday, he
walked out to his death in a noble endeavour to save his three companions
beset with hardships, and as Captain Scott himself wrote, "It was the act
of a brave man and an English gentleman--we all hope to meet the end with
a similar spirit, and assuredly the end is not far."

Scott, Wilson, and Bowers fought on until March 21, only doing about 20
miles in the four days, and then they were forced to camp 11 miles south
of One Ton Depot. They were kept in camp by a blizzard which was too
violent to permit them to move, and on March 25 Captain Scott wrote his
great message to the public:

MESSAGE TO THE PUBLIC

The causes of the disaster are not due to faulty organisation, but to
misfortune in all risks which had to be undertaken.

1.--The loss of pony transport in March, 1911, obliged me to start later
than I had intended, and obliged the limits of stuff transported to be
narrowed.