BRUSHING DOWN THE TENT 3 



sledges, and by a number of others who came to sec us round 

 the Cape. 



We made for the western extremity of Big Razorback Island, 

 and halted when it had just closed and covered the Little Razor- 

 back. We were then not 100 yards from the actual end of the 

 rock and the sledgemeter read 3 miles 700 yards. Nelson and 

 Taylor left us here and we continued with the other three. 



We could now just distinguish the rock patches of Castle Rock 

 and Harbour Heights and we made in a bit to pass as close as 

 possible to the end of Glacier Tongue, where pressure lines were 

 said to be less numerous in the sea ice than farther out. It was 

 so dark, however, that we never saw the end of this Glacier 

 Tongue, and we only knew we had passed it when the lower two- 

 thirds of the Turk's Head Cliffs were suddenly cut off. 



We then ran into some very difficult hummocky sea ice with 

 steep-cut drifts, and our rear sledge capsized. It was too dark to 

 avoid them, so Meares, Simpson and Gran remained with us and 

 helped us until we had cleared them. We were then about three- 

 quarters of a mile beyond Glacier Tongue and the sledgemeter 

 read 5 m. 250 yds. 



The wind, light southerly airs, alternating with calm all the 

 forenoon, now began to blow with some force from the east, and 

 the sky became more and more overcast in the south [a half bliz- 

 zard, in fact] ; so we persuaded the three helpers to return from 

 here. After this we had very little trouble with rough ice, and 

 though the loads (about 250 Ibs. each) were heavy enough to 

 make us slow, we had a good surface to go on. 



We camped for lunch at 2.30 P.M., having made six and one- 

 third miles from Cape Evans. The double tent was easy to pitch, 

 and we began a routine of brushing down the inside, after remov- 

 ing all the contents, every time we broke camp. This routine we 

 continued the whole way to Cape Crozier, and it made a great 

 difference to the collection of ice on the upper two-thirds of the 

 tent. It was the duty of the cook for the day to see to this, and 

 we were each of us cook for one day in turn. The lower third of 

 the tent skirt lining gradually got more and more iced up by 

 trickles from above during the running of the primus, and nothing 

 short of melting it out would have enabled us to keep it clear of 

 ice. We gave up the brushing down routine on the journey home 

 from Cape Crozier, for we had to burn oil so sparingly that we 



