2o8 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Dec. 



* I cannot but think that this sudden revelation of our 

 position was very wonderful. Half an hour before we had 

 been lost ; I could not have told whether we were making for 

 our own glacier or for any other, or whether we were ten or fifty 

 miles from our depot ; it was more than a month since we had 

 seen any known landmark. Now in this extraordinary manner 

 the curtain had been raised ; we found that our rule-of-thumb 

 methods had accomplished the most accurate " land fall," and 

 down the valley we could see the high cliffs of the Depot 

 Nunatak where peace and plenty awaited us. 



' How merciful a view this was we appreciated when we 

 came to count up the result of our fall. Our sledge had not 

 capsized until we all rolled over together at the end, but the 

 jolting had scattered many of our belongings and had burst 

 open the biscuit box, so that all that had remained in it lay 

 distributed over the cascade ; we had no provisions left except 

 the few scraps we could pick up and the very diminished 

 contents of our food bag. As well as our stiffening limbs 

 would allow we hastened to collect the scattered articles, to 

 repack the sledge, and to march on towards the depot. Before 

 us now lay a long plateau, at the edge of which I knew we 

 should find a second cascade, and beneath it the region of 

 our Desolation Camp and a more gradual icy surface down 

 to the Nunatak. By lunch-time we were well across the 

 plateau, and we decided that our shaken condition deserved 

 a hot meal, so we brewed cocoa and felt vastly better after 

 swallowing it. By this time the wind had reached us again, 

 and I had cold work in taking a round of angles, but I got 

 through it, and in an hour we v/ere on the march once more. 

 We soon found ourselves at the top of the second cascade, 

 and under conditions which prevented us from looking for 

 an easy descent ; however, fortune favoured us, and by going 

 very slowly and carefully we managed to get down without 

 accident. 



'Though we were all much shaken and tired, we con- 

 gratulated ourselves on having overcome the worst difficulties, 

 and started off briskly to cover the last five or six miles which 



