i84 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Mar. 



under ordinary conditions we learnt to regard them very little, 

 and often, if one found it inconvenient to nurse one's own limb 

 back to life, one called on the kindly offices of a neighbour. 



But the frost-bites that come when people are doing hard 

 work are more serious, as the first prick may pass unnoticed 

 and the superficial freezing continues to take deeper hold with- 

 out any further sensation. Should the frost-bitten person be 

 exhausted, the evil may spread with alarming rapidity, and 

 then, too, limbs which are well covered and protected may be 

 attacked, and the seriousness of such a condition needs no 

 comment. Hence in our subsequent hard sledging work, 

 whilst we treated the superficial frost-bite with scant respect, 

 we learnt to be cautious to prevent the evil from becoming 

 deep-seated. On long, tiring marches in a wind, frost-bites 

 were bound to come frequently, and in nine cases out of ten 

 were unfelt, so that our custom at such times was to pause 

 occasionally and peer into each other's faces in search of white 

 patches. More important still, we learnt not to continue ex- 

 hausting marches too long in heavy weather, but to reserve a 

 margin of energy for the chill work of making the camp, during 

 which any unduly tired person was bound to be in great 

 danger of serious freezing. 



A frost-bite must be very superficial and very quickly dealt 

 with not to leave an after-effect. This effect is a blister, more 

 or less painful in proportion to the seriousness of the frost- 

 bite. To all intents and purposes the effect is precisely the 

 same as that of a burn. In anything but a very superficial 

 frost-bite, moreover, the actual sensation of returning circula- 

 tion is very distinctly painful. 



Places which have been frost-bitten become extraordinarily 

 susceptible to a recurrence of the evil. In our second winter in 

 the Antarctic there were few of us whose fingers had not ' gone ' 

 at one time or another, and consequently it was much rarer to see 

 people working with bare hands than it was in the first winter, 

 when many delighted to show their scorn of cold fingers. So 

 for a long while after Barne had recovered the use of his hand 

 he had to nurse it with far greater care than the uninjured one. 



