342 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 



turbance. We pulled on ski and the dogs followed. I cau- 

 tioned the drivers to keep close to their sledges and we must 

 have passed over a good many crevasses undiscovered by us, 

 thanks to ski, and by the dogs owing to the soft snow. In 

 one only Seaman Evans dropped a leg, ski and all. We built 

 our depot * before starting, made it very conspicuous, and left 

 a good deal of gear there. The old man-hauling party made 

 heavy weather at first, but when relieved of a little weight and 

 having cleaned their runners and re-adjusted their load they 

 came on in fine style, and, passing us, took the lead. Starting 

 about II, by 3 o'clock we were clear of the pressure, and I 

 camped the dogs, discharged our loads, and we put them on 

 our sledges. It was a very anxious business when we started 

 after lunch, about 4.30. Could we pull our full loads or not? 

 My own party got away first, and, to my joy, I found we could 

 make fairly good headway. Every now and again the sledge 

 sank in a soft patch, which brought us up, but we learned to treat 

 such occasions with patience. We got sideways to the sledge and 

 hauled it out, Evans (P.O.) getting out of his ski to get 

 better purchase. The great thing is to keep the sledge moving, 

 and for an hour or more there were dozens of critical moments 

 when it all but stopped, and not a few in it brought up altogether. 

 The latter were very trying and tiring. But suddenly the surface 

 grew more uniform and we more accustomed to the game, for 

 after a long stop to let the other parties come up, I started at 

 6 and ran on till 7, pulling easily without a halt at the rate of 

 about 2 miles an hour. I was very jubilant; all difi^culties seemed 

 to be vanishing; but unfortunately our history was not repeated 

 with the other parties. Bowers came up about half an hour 

 after us. They also had done well at the last, and I'm pretty 

 sure they will get on all right. Keohane is the only weak spot, 

 and he only, I think, because blind (temporarily). But Evans' 

 party didn't get up till 10. They started quite well, but got into 

 difficulties, did just the wrong thing by straining again and again, 

 and so, tiring themselves, went from bad to worse. Their ski 

 shoes, too, are out of trim. 



Just as I thought we were in for making a great score, this 

 difficulty overtakes us — It Is dreadfully trying. The snow around 

 us to-night is terribly soft, one sinks to the knee at every step; 



* The Lower Glacier Depot. 



