i 9 ii] CHANGE OF LUCK 41 



such a position could direct us how to get him up by a way 

 which, as far as we know, he invented on the spur of the moment, 

 a way which we have used since on the Beardmore. 



In front of us we could see another ridge, and we did not 

 know how many lay beyond that. Things looked pretty bad. 

 Bill took a long lead on the Alpine rope and we got down our 

 present difficulty all right. From this moment our luck changed 

 and everything went for us to the end. This method of the leader 

 being on a long trace in front we all agreed to be very useful. 

 When we went out on the sea ice the whole experience was over in 

 a few days and Hut Point was always in sight and there was 

 daylight. I always had the feeling that the whole series of events 

 had been brought about by an extraordinary run of accidents, 

 and after a certain stage it it was quite beyond our power to guide 

 the course of events. When, on the way to C. Crozier, the moon 

 suddenly came out of the cloud to show us a great crevasse which 

 would have taken us all with our sledge without any difficulty, 

 I felt that we were not to go under on this trip after such a de- 

 liverance. When we had lost our tent and there was a very 

 great balance of probability, to me, that we should never find it 

 again, and were lying out the blizzard in our bags, I believe we 

 were face to face with a long fight against cold which we could 

 not have survived. I cannot put down in writing how helpless I 

 believe we were to help ourselves, and how we were brought out 

 of a terrible series of experiences. 



When we started back I had a feeling that things might 

 change for the better and this day I had a distinct idea that we 

 were to have one more bad experience and that after that we 

 could hope for better things. Bill, I know, has much the same 

 feeling about a divine providence which was looking after us.] 



We then got on well and soon reached safe land ice, having 

 sounded for and found all the cracks in our path in time to avoid 

 or cross them safely. 



We next got on to a very long upward incline, and made good 

 going till we had to camp, having covered 7^4 miles in the day. 



The temp, varied from 45 to -47 during the day, but 

 the weather was calm and clear enough later on for us to see 

 something of where we were going. 



Friday, July 28, 1911. We were away before daylight and 

 found ourselves still on the upward slope of a very long gradient 



