402 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [March 



morning. Apart from sledging considerations the weather is 

 wonderful. Cloudless days and nights and the wind trifling. 

 Worse luck, the light airs come from the north and keep us 

 horribly cold. For this lunch hour the exception has come. 

 There is a bright and comparatively warm sun. All our gear 

 is out drying. 



Friday, March 2. — Lunch. Misfortunes rarely come singly. 

 We marched to the (Middle Barrier) depot fairly easily yes- 

 terday afternoon, and since that have suffered three distinct 

 blows which have placed us in a bad position. First we found 

 a shortage of oil; with most rigid economy it can scarce carry 

 us to the next depot on this surface (71 miles away). Second, 

 Titus Oates disclosed his feet, the toes showing very bad indeed, 

 evidently bitten by the late temperatures. The third blow came 

 in the night, when the wind, which we had hailed with some 

 joy, brought dark overcast weather. It fell below -40° in the 

 night, and this morning it took i^ hours to get our foot gear 

 on, but we got away before eight. We lost cairn and tracks to- 

 gether and made as steady as we could N. by W., but have seen 

 nothing. Worse was to come — the surface is simply awful. In 

 spite of strong wind and full sail we have only done 5^ miles. 

 We are in a very queer street since there is no doubt we cannot 

 do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly. 



Saturday, March 3. — Lunch. We picked up the track again 

 yesterday, finding ourselves to the eastward. Did close on 10 

 miles and things looked a trifle better; but this morning the out- 

 look is blacker than ever. Started well and with good breeze; 

 for an hour made good headway; then the surface grew awful 

 beyond words. The wind drew forward; every circumstance 

 was against us. After 434 hours things so bad that we camped, 

 having covered 4^ miles. (R.46.) One cannot consider this 

 a fault of our own — certainly we were pulling hard this morning 

 — it was more than three parts surface which held us back — 

 the wind at strongest, powerless to move the sledge. When the 

 light is good it is easy to see the reason. The surface, lately a 

 very good hard one, is coated with a thin layer of woolly crys- 

 tals, formed by radiation no doubt. These are too firmly fixed 

 to be removed by the wind and cause impossible friction on the 

 runners. God help us, we can't keep up this pulling, that is 

 certain. Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but 



