84 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 



in such a desolate condition. I had had so much interest in 

 seeing all the old landmarks and the huts apparently intact. 

 To camp outside and feel that all the old comfort and cheer 

 had departed, was dreadfully heartrending. I went to bed thor- 

 oughly depressed. It seems a fundamental expression of civil- 

 ised human sentiment that men who come to such places as this 

 should leave what comfort they can to welcome those who 

 follow. 



Monday, January i6. — We slept badly till the morning and, 

 therefore, late. After breakfast we went up the hills; there was 

 a keen S.E. breeze, but the sun shone and my spirits revived. 

 There was very much less snow everywhere than I had ever 

 seen. The ski run was completely cut through in two places, the 

 Gap and Observation Hill almost bare, a great bare slope on 

 the side of Arrival Heights, and on top of Crater Heights an 

 immense bare table-land. How delighted we should have been 

 to see it like this in the old days ! The pond was thawed and 

 the confervEE green in fresh water. The hole which we had dug 

 in the mound in the pond was still there, as Meares discovered 

 by falling into it up to his waist and getting very wet. 



On the south side we could see the Pressure Ridges beyond 

 Pram Point as of old — Horseshoe Bay calm and unpressed — 

 the sea ice pressed on Pram Point and along the Gap ice foot, 

 and a new ridge running around C. Armitage about 2 miles 

 off. We saw Ferrar's old thermometer tubes standing out of 

 the snow slope as though they'd been placed yesterday. Vince's 

 cross might have been placed yesterday — the paint was so fresh 

 and the inscription so legible. 



The flagstaff was down, the stays having carried away, but in 

 five minutes it could be put up again. We loaded some asbestos 

 sheeting from the old magnetic hut on our sledges for Simpson, 

 and by standing y^ mile off Hut Point got a clear run to Glacier 

 Tongue. I had hoped to get across the wide crack by going 

 west, but found that it ran for a great distance and had to 

 get on the glacier at the place at which we had left it. We 

 got to camp about teatime. I found our larder in the grotto 

 completed and stored with mutton and penguins — the tempera- 

 ture Inside has never been above 27°, so that it ought to be a 

 fine place for our winter store. Simpson has almost completed 

 the differential magnetic cave next door. The hut stove was 



