28 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [JULY 



visit was a very hurried one, unfortunately, owing to the short- 

 ness of the light and the risk of getting benighted in the pressure 

 ridges. Subsequent events unfortunately made another visit 

 impossible. 



[We legged it back as hard as we could go, two eggs each in 

 our fur mits; Birdie with two skins tied on behind, and myself 

 with one. We were roped up, and climbing the ridges and get- 

 ting through the holes was very difficult. In one place where 

 there was a steep rubble and snow slope down I left the ice-axe 

 half-way up; in another it was too dark to see our former ice- 

 axe footsteps, and I could see nothing, and so just let myself go 

 and trusted to luck. Bill said with infinite patience, ' Cherry, you 

 must learn how to use an ice-axe.' For the rest of the trip my 

 windclothes were in rags. 



We found the sledge, and none too soon. We had four eggs 

 left, more or less whole. Both mine had burst in my mits : the 

 first I emptied out, the second I left in my mit to put in the 

 cooker; it never got there, but on the return journey I had my 

 mits far more easily thawed out than Birdie's (Bill had none), 

 and I believe the grease in the egg did them good. When we got 

 into the hollows under the ridge where we had to cross, it was 

 too dark to do anything but feel our way which we did over 

 many crevasses, found the ridge and crept over it. Higher up 

 we could see more, but to follow our tracks soon became im- 

 possible, and we plugged straight ahead and luckily found the 

 slope down which we had come. 



It began to blow, and as we were going up the slope to the 

 tent, blew up to 4; it was such a bad light that we missed our 

 way entirely and got right up above our knoll, and only found it 

 after a good deal of search; meanwhile the weather was getting 

 thick.] 



On returning to the stone hut we flensed one of the penguin 

 skins and cooked our supper on the blubber stove, which burnt 

 furiously. I was incapacitated for the time being by a sputter of 

 the hot oil catching me in one eye. We slept in the hut for the 

 first time. 



[We moved into the igloo and began a wretched night. The 

 wind was coming in all round. It began to drift, and the drift 

 came in by a back draught under the door and covered everything 

 bags, socks, and all our gear. Bill started up the blubber stove 



