252 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [August 



The light had failed entirely by the time the party were 

 clear of the pressure ridges on their return, and it was only 

 by good luck they regained their camp. 



That night a blizzard commenced, increasing in fury from 

 moment to moment. They now found that the place chosen for 

 the hut for shelter was worse than useless. They had far better 

 have built in the open, for the fierce wind, instead of striking 

 them directly, was deflected on to them in furious whirling gusts. 

 Heavy blocks of snow and rock placed on the roof were whirled 

 away and the canvas ballooned up, tearing and straining at its 

 securings its disappearance could only be a question of time. 

 They had erected their tent with some valuables inside close to 

 the hut; it had been well spread and more than amply secured 

 with snow and boulders, but one terrific gust tore it up and 

 whirled it away. Inside the hut they waited for the roof to 

 vanish, wondering what they could do if it went, and vainly 

 endeavouring to make it secure. After fourteen hours it went, 

 as they were trying to pin down one corner. The smother of 

 snow was on them, and they could only dive for their sleeping- 

 bags with a gasp. Bowers put his head out once and said, 

 ' We're all right,' in as near his ordinary tones as he could 

 compass. The others replied ' Yes, we're all right,' and all 

 were silent for a night and half a day whilst the wind howled on; 

 the snow entered every chink and crevasse of the sleeping-bags, 

 and the occupants shivered and wondered how it would all end. 



This gale was the same (July 23) in which we registered 

 our maximum wind force, and it seems probable that it fell on 

 C. Crozier even more violently than on us. 



The wind fell at noon the following day; the forlorn travel- 

 lers crept from their icy nests, made shift to spread their floor- 

 cloth overhead, and lit their primus. They tasted their first 

 food for forty-eight hours and began to plan a means to build 

 a shelter on the homeward route. They decided that they 

 must dig a large pit nightly and cover it as best they could with 

 their floorcloth. But now fortune befriended them; a search 

 to the north revealed the tent lying amongst boulders a quarter 

 of a mile away, and, strange to relate, practically uninjured, a 

 fine testimonial for the material used in its construction. On the 

 following day they started homeward, and immediately another 

 blizzard fell on them, holding them prisoners for two days. 



