46 SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION [Aucust 
or hoosh on to our bags as they lay on the floorcloth. This did 
not worry us, since it was practically impossible for our bags to 
be wetter than they were. 
During the last four days Birdie quite often fell asleep as 
he was marching; I do not know that Bill ever did this. I 
never did so till the last day when for about an hour I was fall- 
ing asleep constantly as we marched along—waking when I came 
up against Bill or Birdie. ] 
Tuesday, August 1, 1911.—In the hut we pitched the dome 
tent and lit a primus to warm it while we cooked our supper. 
We had thus a much more comfortable night than the blubber 
stove could have given us. 
[The hut struck us as fairly warm; we could almost feel it 
getting warmer as we went round C. Armitage. We managed 
to haul the sledge up the ice foot. We pitched the dome tent 
in the place where Crean used to sleep and got both primus going 
in it—for there was plenty of oil there, and we got it really 
warm, and drank cocoa without sugar so thick that next morn- 
ing we were gorged with it. We were very happy, falling asleep 
between each mouthful. After some hours of this we discussed 
several schemes of not getting into our bags at all, but settled 
it was best to do so. | 
We had three hours in our bags and turned out at 3 A.M., 
hoping to make an early start to get into Cape Evans before 
dinner-time. But a strong easterly wind got up and prevented 
our start, so we continued to doze in the tent as we sat there, in 
preference to being in our bags. 
At 9.30 A.M. the wind dropped, and we got away at 11, but 
met with a very cold breeze off the land on rounding Hut Point. 
We walked out of it, however, in a mile or so by getting into the 
open, and then made a straight course all the way for Cape 
Evans, deciding not to camp for lunch until we had passed the 
broken ice off the end of Glacier Tongue by daylight. This took 
us 514 hours, and we camped at 4.30 P.M., exactly 8 miles from 
Hut Point. 
The surface was varied, and we were a mile or so farther 
out all the way on this our return journey than on our outward 
journey, so it differed rather from the surface we had then. 
After leaving Hut Point we had very rough, rubbly sea ice 
with no snow worth mentioning for two or three miles. What 
