A century ago, British naval Capt. Robert F. Scott and four members of his polar expedition trudged across the forbidding Antarctic landscape, â??man-haulingâ? sleds across 800 miles of ice and snow in a desperate push to make it back to their base.
The Englishmen were suffering from frostbite, malnutrition, dysentery and probably heavy hearts: They were coming home with the knowledge that a competing expedition, led by Norwegian Roald Amundsen, had beaten them to the South Pole.
But halfway back to their base, Scott did something quite extraordinary. He stopped at the foot of a mountain range and sent one of his men to collect some unusual rocks.
â??I decided to camp and spend the rest of the day geologising,â? Scott wrote in his journal on Feb. 8, 1912. â??It has been extremely interesting. .â??.â??. [Edward A.] Wilson, with his sharp eyes, has picked several plant impressions, the last a piece of coal with beautifully traced leaves in layers.â?
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