350 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 



hard snow, and then on to pretty rough ice with surface snow- 

 field cracks, bad for sledges, but ours promised to come through 

 well. We have worn our crampons all day and are delighted 

 with them. P.O. Evans, the inventor of both crampons and ski 

 shoes, is greatly pleased, and certainly we owe him much. The 

 weather is beginning to look dirty again, snow clouds rolling in 

 from the east as usual. I believe it will be overcast to-morrow. 



Monday, December 18. Camp 40. Lunch nearly 4000 

 feet above Barrier. Overcast and snowing this morning as I 

 expected, land showing on starboard hand, so, though it was 

 gloomy and depressing, we could march, and did. We have done 

 our 8 stat. miles between 8.20 and 1 p.m.; at first fairly good 

 surface; then the ice got very rugged with sword-cut splits. 

 We got on a slope which made matters worse. I then pulled 

 up to the left, at first without much improvement, but as we 

 topped a rise the surface got much better and things look quite 

 promising for the moment. On our right we have now a pretty 

 good view of the Adams Marshall and Wild Mountains and 

 their very curious horizontal stratification. Wright has found, 

 amongst bits of wind-blown debris, an undoubted bit of sandstone 

 and a bit of black basalt. We must get to know more of the 

 geology before leaving the glacier finally. This morning all 

 our gear was fringed with ice crystals which looked very pretty. 



Afternoon. (Night camp No. 40, about 4500 above Bar- 

 rier. T. ii. Lat. about 84 34'.) After lunch got on some 

 very rough stuff within a few hundred yards of pressure ridge. 

 There seemed no alternative, and we went through with it. 

 Later, the glacier opened out into a broad basin with irregular 

 undulations, and we on to a better surface, but later on again 

 this improvement nearly vanished, so that it has been hard going 

 all day, but we have done a good mileage (over 14 stat.). We 

 are less than five days behind S. now. There was a promise of 

 a clearance about noon, but later more snow clouds drifted over 

 from the east, and now it is snowing again. We have scarcely 

 caught a gimpse of the eastern side of the glacier all day. The 

 western side has not been clear enough to photograph at the 

 halts. It is very annoying, but I suppose we must be thankful 

 when we can get our marches off. Still sweating horribly on the 

 march and very thirsty at the halts. 



Tuesday, December 19. Lunch, rise 650. Dist. S z / 2 geo. 



