386 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [February 



most places polished smooth, but with heaps of new toothed sas- 

 trugi which are disagreeable obstacles. Evans' fingers are going 

 on as well as can be expected, but it will be long before he 

 will be able to help properly with the work. Wilson's leg much 

 better, and my shoulder also, though it gives bad twinges. The 

 extra food is doing us all good, but we ought to have more sleep. 

 Very few more days on the plateau I hope. 



Sunday, February 4. — R.18. 8620 feet. Temp.: Lunch 

 — 22°; Supper — 23°. Pulled on foot in the morning over good 

 hard surface and covered 9-7 miles. Just before lunch unex- 

 pectedly fell into crevasses, Evans and I together — a second fall 

 for Evans, and I camped. After lunch saw disturbance ahead, 

 and what I took for disturbance (land) to the right. We went 

 on ski over hard shiny descending surface. Did very well, es- 

 pecially towards end of march, covering in all i8-i. We have 

 come down some hundreds of feet. Half way in the march the 

 land showed up splendidly, and I decided to make straight for 

 Mt. Darwin, which Ave are rounding. Every sign points to get- 

 ting away off this plateau. The temperature is 20° lower than 

 when we were here before; the party is not improving in condi- 

 tion, especially Evans, who is becoming rather dull and incap- 

 able.* Thank the Lord we have good food at each meal, but 

 we get hungrier in spite of it. Bowers is splendid, full of energy 

 and bustle all the time. I hope we are not going to have trouble 

 with ice-falls. 



Monday, February 5. — R.19. Lunch, 8320 ft.. Temp. - 17° ; 

 Supper, 8120 ft,. Temp. — 17-2°. A good forenoon, few cre- 

 vasses; we covered 10-2 miles. In the afternoon we soon got 

 into difficulties. We saw the land very clearly, but the difficulty 

 is to get at it. An hour after starting we came on huge pres- 

 sures and great street crevasses partly open. We had to steer 

 more and more to the west, so that our course was very erratic. 

 Late in the march we turned more to the north and again en- 

 countered open crevasses across our track. It is very difficult 

 manoeuvring amongst these and I should not like to do it with- 

 out ski. 



We are camped in a very disturbed region, but the wind has 

 fallen very light here, and our camp is comfortable for the first 

 time for many weeks. We may be anything from 25 to 30 miles 



* The result of concussion in the morning's fall. 



