106 SCOTT'S LAST: EXPEDITION [Supremper 
glad to get these, as they seem to agree with Browning much 
better than seal. He has been bad again and is getting pessi- 
mistic about himself. 
September 29.—Overhauled ‘the sledge runners, scraping 
and waxing them. We also carried down all the equipment that 
was ready. We are taking the 12-ft. sledge and the 10-ft., the 
latter being fitted with iron runners, which will be a great help 
on sea ice. The weather was overcast, with north-west wind. 
September 30.—A calm morning. As Dickason and Brown- 
ing were both better we abandoned the igloo after breakfast. 
Carrying down the rest of our gear occupied four of us most of 
the day, and I left the two sick men in the hut, cleaning the 
cookers, until the last load. 
It came on very thick with snow in the afternoon and it was 
6.30 P.M. before we pulled out. Snow drifts made the pulling 
heavy and by 8.30 we had only pulled a mile, and as we were all 
pretty tired after our long day’s carrying we camped. Dickason 
was bad in the night, but we are all very cheerful at being on the 
march again, and the change from the dirt and dark of the 
igloo will do us all good. Our sledging rations also seemed 
sumptuous, the daily ration per man being: 
2 pannikins of meat. I stick of chocolate. 
34 pannikin of blubber. 8 lumps of sugar. 
1 pannikin of cocoa. A little pemmican. 
3 biscuits. 
At the commencement of the winter we had some spare wind 
clothing, sweaters, mits, and under clothing, which we had landed 
from the ship. This I put on one side for the journey down and 
only issued it before leaving the igloo. There was not enough 
of everything to go round, but by making the clothes into lots 
and drawing for them we all got something. To keep them clean 
we only changed into them just before leaving the igloo, but the 
luxury of getting into dry clean clothing after the greasy rags we 
discarded was indescribable. We had been in the same clothes 
for nine months, carrying, cooking, and handling blubber, and all 
our garments were black and soaked through and through with 
grease. We were fairly well off for paraffin as we had only used 
the primus to cook our morning hoosh. Dickason’s generosity 
in volunteering to work the primus always had also made a lot 
