THE RETURN JOURNEY 241 



pressure ridges to the east were easily visible, and we 

 got a good bearing, which would possibly come in 

 useful later for fixing the position of the depot. That 

 day we did twenty-four and three-quarter miles; tem- 

 perature, - 39 F. March 13 began calm and fine^but by 

 half -past ten in the morning a strong wind had sprung 

 up from the east-south-east with thick driving snow. 

 So as not to lose the tracks we had followed so far, we 

 pitched our camp, to wait till the storm was over. The 

 wind howled and took hold of the tents, but could not 

 move them. The next day it blew just as hard from 

 the same quarter, and we decided to wait. The tem- 

 perature was as usual, with the wind in this quarter; 

 - 11-2 F. The wind did not moderate till 10.30 a.m. 

 on the 15th, when we were able to make a start. 



What a sight there was outside! How were we 

 going to begin to bring order out of this chaos? The 

 sledges were completely snowed up; whips, ski-bind- 

 ings, and harness largely eaten up. It was a nice 

 predicament. Fortunately we were well supplied with 

 Alpine rope, and that did for the harness; spare straps 

 came in for ski-bindings, but the whips were not so 

 easy to make good. Hanssen, who drove first, was 

 bound to have a fairly serviceable whip; the others did 

 not matter so much, though it was rather awkward for 

 them. In some way or other he provided himself with 

 a whip that answered his purpose. I saw one of the 

 others armed with a tent-pole, and he used it till we 



VOL. i. 16 



