72 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' Qan. 



as everything is wet through — clothes, sleeping-bags, and tent- 

 gear. The canvas tanks and covers of the sledges are shrunk 

 and sodden ; the snow was melted as it drifted against one 

 side of our sail to-day, and from the other hung long icicles. 



' " Lewis " dropped farther and farther astern this morning, 

 and as he has not come up to-night I fear we shall not see him 

 again. 



^January 12. — This morning as we breakfasted there was 

 just a glimpse of landmarks, but before we could properly 

 recognise them the pall of cloud descended once more ; we 

 saw enough to show us that we cannot be very far from the 

 depot. Thanks to a good southerly breeze we have done 

 a good march, and with the help of another latitude sight 

 I calculate the depot must be within a very few miles, but 

 the continuance of this thick weather naturally damps our 

 spirits. 



* There is no doubt we are approaching a very critical 

 time. The depot is a very small spot on a very big ocean of 

 snow ; with luck one might see it at a mile and a half or two 

 miles, and fortune may direct our course within this radius of 

 it ; but, on the other hand, it is impossible not to contemplate 

 the ease with which such a small spot can be missed. In a 

 blizzard we should certainly miss it ; of course we must stop 

 to search when we know we have passed its latitude, but the 

 low tide in the provision-tank shows that the search cannot be 

 prolonged for any time, though we still have the two dogs to 

 fall back on if the worst comes to the worst. The annoying 

 thing is that one good clear sight of the land would solve all 

 our difficulties. 



' For a long time we have been discussing the possible 

 advantage of stripping the German silver off the sledge- 

 runners. Once off it cannot be replaced, and therefore to 

 strip them is a serious step ; the only way in which we have 

 been able to guess the relative merits of the wood and metal 

 runners is by contrasting the sledges and the ski, and it has 

 always seemed to us that the latter are as likely to clog as the 

 former, but the differing conditions of their use make the 



