22 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [JULY 



we said we must have at least two gallons to go back with : then 

 about Terror Point a tin and two full primus lamps; until it 

 came down to one full gallon tin, and this is what we actually did 

 use.] 



Wednesday, July 19, 1911. As it was a fine, calm day we 

 decided to use it in an effort to reach the Emperor rookery and 

 get some blubber, as our last can of oil but one was already run- 

 ning low and we had determined to keep the last can untouched 

 for the journey home. We started down at 9.30 A.M., just as 

 dawn appeared on the horizon in the east. We took an empty 

 sledge, with a couple of ice axes, Alpine rope, harnesses, and skin- 

 ning tools. We had about a mile to go down snow slopes to the 

 edge of the first pressure ridge, and our intention was to keep 

 close in under the land ice cliffs which are very much more ex- 

 tensive now than they were ten years ago. Then we hoped to 

 get in under the actual rock cliffs which had always been the best 

 way down to the rookery in the Discovery days. But somehow 

 we got down by a slope which led us into a valley between the 

 first two pressure ridges, and we found it impossible to get back 

 in under the land ice cliffs. Nor had we then seen any other 

 way down from the land ice except by the slope we followed. 

 The rest was apparently all ice cliff about 80 to 100 ft. high. We 

 tried again and again to work our way in to the left where the 

 land ice cliffs joined the rock cliffs, but though we made consider- 

 able headway now and then along snow slopes and drift ridges 

 by crossing the least tumbled parts of the intervening pressure 

 lines, we yet came time after time to impossible places [with too 

 great a drop], and had to turn back and try another way. [Bill 

 led on a length of Alpine rope on the toggle of the sledge. Birdie 

 was in his harness on the toggle, and I was in my harness on the 

 rear of the sledge. Two or three times we tried to get down the 

 ice slopes to the comparatively level road under the cliff, but it was 

 always too great a drop. In that dim light every proportion was 

 distorted, and some of the places we actually did manage to nego- 

 tiate with ice axes and Alpine rope looked absolute precipices, 

 and there were always crevasses at the bottom if you slipped. 

 This day I went into various crevasses at least six times, once 

 when we were close to the sea going right in to my waist, rolling 

 out and then down a steep slope until brought up by Birdie and 

 Bill on the rope.] We tried one possible opening after another, 



