es 5 8 
1912] A TIRING START 107 
of difference, as he handles the stove with more economy than 
any other of us. 
October 1.—We turned out at 5.30 A.M. The morning was 
still and overcast, but with the sun trying to break through. We 
got away by 7, but made slow progress, finding the drifts very 
heavy. My unit consisted of Priestley, Dickason, and myself, 
with the 12-ft. sledge, and as Levick had the iron runner sledge 
we had the heavier load. We had to relay most of the day, as 
7 Dickason could pull very little and Browning not at all. In fact 
the latter had to rest constantly, so our progress was slow, and 
by lunch time we had only made 2% miles. Our supply of oil 
would not run to hot lunch, so we had a cold lunch sitting 
under the lee of the sledge. Before leaving the igloo we had 
cooked some seal steaks over the blubber fire, but when ex- 
amined in the light of day these looked so filthy and distasteful, 
that we discarded them in favour of shreds of raw penguin and 
seal. 
The walking had made both Dickason and Browning much 
worse, so I had to camp at 6.30 P.M., having only done 5 miles. 
We are all very tired, but in good spirits at leaving the dirt and 
squalor of the hut behind. A lovely evening and every appear- 
ance of a fine day to-morrow. 
October 2.—A fine morning when we turned out at 5.30. 
The surface was rather better and we did not have to relay, but 
it was all we could do to move the sledges. About 11 o'clock 
we got on to a blue ice surface and worked our way through a 
loose moraine. A bitter wind from the plateau got up about 
noon, bringing ‘drift that in the squalls was so thick one could 
not see more than a few yards. The wind was fair, however, and 
we raced along over the blue ice until we suddenly came to a 
huge crevasse barring our passage. We proceeded cautiously 
along its edge to the eastward until we found a place where it 
was snow bridged, and then leaving the sledges with Levick and 
Browning, the rest of us roped up and went across, testing it 
with our ice-axes as we advanced. 
The snow bridge was 175 paces across, and except for one 
place on the weather side it seemed perfectly safe. I should 
like to have stayed and examined it, as from its width it had 
more the appearance of an inlet of the sea ending in a wide 
crevasse, but the gale was rising and the drifting snow so thick 
