1911] CHANGE OF LUCK Al 
such a position could direct us how to get him up—by a way 
which, as far as we know, he invented on the spur of the moment, 
a way which we have used since on the Beardmore. 
In front of us we could see another ridge, and we did not 
know how many lay beyond that. ‘Things looked pretty bad. 
Bill took a long lead on the Alpine rope and we got down our 
present difficulty all right. From this moment our luck changed 
and everything went for us to the end. This method of the leader 
being on a long trace in front we all agreed to be very useful. 
When we went out on the sea ice the whole experience was over in 
a few days and Hut Point was always in sight—and there was 
daylight. I always had the feeling that the whole series of events 
had been brought about by an extraordinary run of accidents, 
and after a certain stage it it was quite beyond our power to guide 
the course of events. When, on the way to C. Crozier, the moon 
suddenly came out of the cloud to show us a great crevasse which 
would have taken us all with our sledge without any difficulty, 
I felt that we were not to go under on this trip after such a de- 
liverance. When we had lost our tent—and there was a very 
great balance of probability, to me, that we should never find it 
again,—and were lying out the blizzard in our bags, I believe we 
were face to face with a long fight against cold which we could 
not have survived. I cannot put down in writing how helpless I 
believe we were to help ourselves, and how we were brought out 
of a terrible series of experiences. 
When we started back I had a feeling that things might 
change for the better—and this day I had a distinct idea that we 
were to have one more bad experience and that after that we 
could hope for better things. Bill, I know, has much the same 
feeling about a divine providence which was looking after us. ] 
We then got on well and soon reached safe land ice, having 
sounded for and found all the cracks in our path in time to avoid 
or cross them safely. 
We next got on to a very long upward incline, and made good 
going till we had to camp, having covered 714 miles in the day. 
The temp. varied from — 45° to —47° during the day, but 
the weather was calm and clear enough later on for us to see 
something of where we were going. 
Friday, July 28, 1911.—We were away before daylight and 
found ourselves still on the upward slope of a very long gradient 
