FIRST CROSSING OF ANTARCTICA— ELLSWORTH 321 



On January 15, a month after we arrived at Little America, I was 

 awakened at 22.00 to see Kenyon standing over me with a note in his 

 hand. He had heard the roar of a motor overhead, although our 

 dugout home was 15 feet beneath the snow, and had crawled up to 

 the surface in time to see a parachute descending through the fog wliich 

 had enveloped us for 2 weeks. The parcel contamed food, and the 

 note was from Captain Hill, commanding the R. R. S. Discovery II. 

 Within 10 days after the failure of our radio the Commonwealth of 

 Austraha had sent a rehef expedition, and had been seconded in this 

 by the Governments of the United Kingdom and New Zealand. As 

 I was laid up with an infected foot, Kenyon started off alone to meet 

 our visitors; but I could sjeep no more that night, and started out in 

 snowshoes to learn what was up. A mile from camp I saw through the 

 fog, which magnified frightfully in these regions, what appeared to be 

 a whole army of men marching toward me; in reahty there were six 

 of them. We packed the sledge and started for the ship, where I 

 was received with open arms, and learned that my own ship had been 

 delayed by the pack ice in the Ross Sea. Tliree days later a radio 

 message told us that the Wyatt Earp was approaching the bay, and 

 very soon the staunch httle craft loomed up in the fog. While my 

 party was loading the Polar Star on the Wyatt Earp I went on the 

 Discovery II to Australia, where I was for 12 days the guest of the 

 Government. 



31508—38- 



