They were used extensively
in discussions or lectures on such polar subjects as clothing, food
rations, and the building of igloos, while we were constantly referring
to them on specific points and getting useful hints, such as the use of
an inner lining to our tents, and the mechanism of a blubber stove.
I have already spoken of the importance of maps and books of reference,
and these should include a good encyclopaedia and dictionaries, English,
Latin and Greek. Oates was generally deep in Napier's History of the
Peninsular War, and some of us found Herbert Paul's History of Modern
England a great stand-by. Most of us managed to find room in our personal
gear when sledging for some book which did not weigh much and yet would
last. Scott took some Browning on the Polar Journey, though I only saw
him reading it once; Wilson took Maud and In Memoriam; Bowers always had
so many weights to tally and observations to record on reaching camp that
I feel sure he took no reading matter. Bleak House was the most
successful book I ever took away sledging, though a volume of poetry was
useful, because it gave one something to learn by heart and repeat during
the blank hours of the daily march, when the idle mind is all too apt to
think of food in times of hunger, or possibly of purely imaginary
grievances, which may become distorted into real foundations of discord
under the abnormal strain of living for months in the unrelieved company
of three other men.
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