<P> Scott's party faced extremely difficult conditions on the return journey, mainly due to the exceptionally adverse weather, poor food supply, injuries sustained from falls, and the effects of scurvy and frostbite, all slowing their progress . On 17 February 1912, near the foot of the Beardmore glacier, Edgar Evans died, suspected by his companions to be the result of a blow to his head suffered during a fall into a crevasse a few days earlier . Oates' feet had become severely frostbitten and it has been suggested (but never evidenced) that his war wound had re-opened due to the effects of scurvy . He was certainly weakening faster than the others . In his diary entry of 5 March, Scott wrote "Oates' feet are in a wretched condition...The poor soldier is very nearly done ." </P> <P> Oates' slower progress, coupled with the unwillingness of his three remaining companions to leave him, was causing the party to fall behind schedule . With an average of 65 miles (105 km) between the pre-laid food depots and only a week's worth of food and fuel provided by each depot, they needed to maintain a march of over 9 miles (14 km) a day to have full rations for the final 400 miles (640 km) of their return journey across the Ross Ice Shelf . However, 9 miles (14 km) was about their best progress any day and this had lately reduced to sometimes only 3 miles (4.8 km) a day due to Oates' worsening condition . On 15 March, Oates told his companions that he could not go on and proposed that they leave him in his sleeping - bag, which they refused to do . He managed a few more miles that day but his condition worsened that night . </P> <P> Waking on the morning of the 17th of March (or possibly the 16th; Scott was unsure of the date), Oates walked out of the tent into a blizzard and − 40 ° F (− 40 ° C) temperatures to his death . Scott wrote in his diary, "We knew that poor Oates was walking to his death, but though we tried to dissuade him, we knew it was the act of a brave man and an English gentleman ." Oates' sacrifice, however, made no difference to the eventual outcome . </P> <P> Scott, Wilson and Bowers continued onwards for a further 20 miles (32 km) towards the' One Ton' food depot that could save them but were halted at latitude 79 ° 40'S by a fierce blizzard on 20 March . Trapped in their tent by the weather and too weak, cold and malnourished to continue, they eventually died nine days later, only eleven miles short of their objective . Their frozen bodies were discovered by a search party on 12 November 1912 . Oates' body was never found . Near where he was presumed to have died, the search party erected a cairn and cross bearing the inscription; "Hereabouts died a very gallant gentleman, Captain L.E.G. Oates, of the Inniskilling Dragoons . In March 1912, returning from the Pole, he walked willingly to his death in a blizzard, to try and save his comrades, beset by hardships ." </P>

Who said i may be gone some time