36o SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 



moved well. Camped at 6.45, having covered 13^ miles (geo.). 

 Steering the party is no light task. One cannot allow one's 

 thoughts to wander as others do, and when, as this afternoon, 

 one gets amongst disturbances, I find it is very worrying and 

 tiring. I do trust we shall have no more of them. We have 

 not lost sight of the sun since we came on the summit; we should 

 get an extraordinary record of sunshine. It is monotonous work 

 this; the sledgemeter and theodolite govern the situation. 



Thursday, December 28. — Lunch. Bar. 2077. I start cook- 

 ing again to-morrow morning. We have had a troublesome day 

 but have completed our 13 miles (geo.). My unit pulled away 

 easy this morning and stretched out for two hours — the second 

 unit made heavy weather. I changed with Evans and found the 

 second sledge heavy — could keep up, but the team was not swing- 

 ing with me as my own team swings. Then I changed P.O. 

 Evans for Lashly. We seemed to get on better, but at the mo- 

 ment the surface changed and we came up over a rise with hard 

 sastrugi. At the top we camped for lunch. What was the diffi- 

 culty? One theory was that some members of the second party 

 were stale. Another that all was due to the bad stepping and 

 want of swing; another that the sledge pulled heavy. In the 

 afternoon we exchanged sledges, and at first went off well, but 

 getting into soft snow, we found a terrible drag, the second party 

 coming quite easily with our sledge. So the sledge is the cause 

 of the trouble, and talking it out, I found that all is due to want 

 of care. The runners ran excellently, but the structure has been 

 distorted by bad strapping, bad loading, &c. The party are not 

 done, and I have told them plainly that they must wrestle with 

 the trouble and get it right for themselves. There is no possible 

 reason why they should not get along as easily as we do. 



Obs.: 86° 27' 2'' S.; 161° 1-15' E.; 179° 33' E. Bar. 20-64. 



Friday, December 29. — Bar. 20-52. Lunch. Height 9,050 

 about. The worst surface we have struck, very heavy pulling; 

 but we came 63/2 miles (geo.). It will be a strain to keep up 

 distances if we get surfaces like this. We seem to be steadily 

 but slowly rising. The satisfactory thing is that the second 

 party now keeps up, as the faults have been discovered; they 

 were due partly to the rigid loading of the sledge and partly to 

 the bad pacing. 



Night camp 51. Bar. 20-49. T. — 6°. Had another struggle 



