I0 4 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [SEPTEMBER 



clear with a light westerly wind. Priestley and I went over to 

 the depot moraine to look at the geological specimens and put 

 them round the bamboo mark, but found they had been buried 

 in a drift, and after digging all day had to come away without 

 them. On our way back we dug out the sledges which had been 

 nearly buried. When we got back we found Abbott and Dicka- 

 son had been all round the Coves after seals, but without success. 

 We are still short of sledging meat, having only five bags of 

 cut up meat, and we shall require eight. The allowance will be 

 two mugs per day for each man, and each bag contains forty-two 

 mugs, or one week's meat for each tent. 



A thin scum of ice formed over the bay, but even if the sea 

 ice did form now I should not trust it for sledging. 



September 12. Overcast and low drift. I am repairing 

 Levick's sleeping-bag and putting a new flap on my own; a slow 

 job when one has to work by the light of a blubber lamp. 



September 13. Browning and Dickason saw a seal with a 

 fish in its mouth, but he would not come up on the ice. These two 

 are still very bad with diarrhoea, and we are giving them fresh 

 water hoosh to see if that does any good. 



September 14. Browning was very bad in the night. I wish 

 we had a change of diet to give him. He has been ill, off and 

 on, for five months now and has been very cheerful through it 

 all. Priestley and Dickason are also down with enteritis but are 

 not so bad. We have some Oxo and I shall try Browning on 

 this before sledging. The rest of us are feeling fairly fit. At the 

 beginning of this month we started Swedish exercises, and will 

 keep it up until we start sledging, as our leg muscles have shrunk 

 to nothing. As the hut is not nearly 6 feet high we are obliged 

 to do these exercises and all our other work without standing 

 upright, and this has given rise to what we called the ' Igloo 

 Back,' which is caused by the stretching of the ligaments round 

 the spine and is very painful. 



September 17. A fine morning. Priestley and Abbott went 

 over to the moraine depot to dig for the specimens, while Dicka- 

 son and I dug out the sledges which had been buried again. 

 After a hard day's work we got our sledges clear, and brought 

 up the tent poles to shorten and repair for sledging. Getting 

 back late we heard that Priestley had found a seal, which he and 

 Browning killed and cut up. There has been great rejoicing to- 



