202 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Dec. 



plateau : apart from the difficulty which it presented to our 

 travelling, this was an interesting observation, for it shows that 

 the plateau snowfall takes place in December, and that it is 

 far heavier on the edge than in the interior of the continent. 

 Another interesting fact was observable in this connection, for 

 whilst this light snow had been falling the wind had crept 

 round to the south, sometimes to such an angle with our course 

 that it was most difficult to trim our sledge sail to derive any 

 benefit from it. In its most southerly direction it brought a 

 desirable increase of temperature, and on some days we had a 

 fair imitation of the mild southerly blizzards which were such 

 a conspicuous feature at the ship. But at this time, as we 

 plodded on with an eye on our diminishing stock of provisions, 

 it can be imagined that we were not inclined to bless the 

 climatic conditions which had wrought such a change in the 

 surface. December 9, in fact, seemed to show everything 

 going wrong for us, and the marches on that day and those 

 which followed I can never forget. Our sledge weight was 

 reduced almost to a minimum, and we ourselves were inured 

 to hard marching if ever three persons were, yet by our utmost 

 exertion we could barely exceed a pace of a mile an hour. I 

 have done some hard pulling, but never anything to equal this. 

 The sledge was like a log ; two of us could scarcely move it, 

 and therefore throughout the long hours we could none of us 

 relax our efforts for a single moment — we were forced to keep 

 a continuous strain on our harness with a tension that kept our 

 ropes rigid and made conversation quite impossible. So heavy 

 was the work that I may remark we once tried pulling on ski 

 and found we simply couldn't move the sledge. 



It was on the evening of the 9th that the seriousness of 

 our position once more manifested itself, and I therefore resort 

 again to my diary : 



' . . . This afternoon the surface grew worse and worse, 

 and at the end of the march we were all dog tired. The state 

 of affairs is again serious, whereas this morning I thought it 

 would only be a matter of hours before we should be able to 

 increase our rations and satisfy the pangs of hunger, which are 



