128 NEAREST THE POLE 



things fall through. Success is what will give them 

 existence. Then I went over again what I should 

 do in the various contingencies, if it ever cleared, 

 but that did not take long. I knew what I should do 

 in every contingency I could think of. 



And always through the black shadow of impending 

 failure showed the steady light of so many days nearer 

 my island and its people. 



I quote from my Journal: 



Another day, the sixth of the interminable gale. 

 Will it never end? The wind and drift continue with 

 unabated violence. For some three hours to-day, I 

 pushed, and butted, and at times almost crawled on 

 hands and knees, back and forth across the small 

 floe on which we are camped. 



This partly for exercise, partly because I could 

 no longer keep quiet, partly from a desire to determine 

 with certainty, whether, if I were made of sterner 

 stuff, I might not be travelling. I am perfectly 

 satisfied now. No party could travel in this gale, 

 not because of the cold, though that is not slight, but 

 because of the physical impossibility. To face the 

 gale would quickly wear out the strongest man living, 

 even if it were possible to expose the face directly for 

 more than an instant to the cutting drift. I am also 

 satisfied that the effect of the storm will not be to 

 make the travelling (if it ever clears) worse; or to 

 obliterate our trail from the 'big lead' here. 



All the new snow, and some of the old is being 

 scoured off the floes and deposited in the pressure 

 ridges, and the tracks of my sledges, dogs and men are 



