I902] THE MARCH RESUMED 361 



our lamp-wick straps and to readjust the folds about our legs 

 to the new conditions ; then we are off once more. 



And now hour after hour creeps on whilst we seem to have 

 turned into a machine — a machine that must keep moving 

 with that regular swinging step, and now, thank heaven, a 

 machine that can do so without straining its parts. A week 

 ago things were very different ; we vividly remember the start 

 of the journey, when, in spite of the temperature, the perspira- 

 tion ran off us, when our legs seemed uncontrollable members, 

 and our back one huge ache. Since that, day by day we have 

 grown stronger on the trail, until now the early hours of the 

 march are almost a physical pleasure, and it is only towards its 

 end that we feel the weight of the sledges. Yet withal progress 

 is not rapid ; one and three-quarter mile an hour is good going. 

 Sometimes we come down to one and a half or less, and if we 

 exceed two we seem to be racing. Still, even a mile and a half 

 an hour produces a fair total for the day, if we can keep it 

 going for nine hours or more. So we plod along mechanically, 

 each footfall but little in advance of the last, whilst the sledges 

 come jerkily in our wake and leave the long, snaky furrows 

 behind. 



At one o'clock there is a halt for lunch. Here we score, 

 for in the old days with ponderous, dilatory cooking-apparatus 

 the sledge traveller could not afford to take his luncheon hot ; 

 but with us the cooker is singing ten minutes after we halt, and 

 in less than half an hour we have hot tea or cocoa ; and whilst 

 we munch our modest allowance of biscuit and cheese, the hot 

 fluid once more sends the blood coursing through our veins. 



I think there can be no doubt as to the benefit of this hot 

 meal in the middle of the day, though possibly some hardened 

 travellers may consider it an unnecessary luxury ; it forms an 

 oasis in the long desert of the day's march, it breathes new 

 vigour and spirit into a flagging party. For lack of fuel I have 

 been long spells without a hot drink at midday, and therefore I 

 know well the difference it makes to the afternoon march ; and 

 though I know the case is not strong scientifically, I am pre- 

 pared to affirm that the distance gained on the marches 



