172 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [DECEMBER 



frightened a loif e out of me, Sorr ! " Meanwhile Gran had laid 

 the poles up against the floe and left his bag just behind, when the 

 mush gave way and in he went. He rescued his bag, and cling- 

 ing to the poles he somehow managed to crawl up the ice foot, 

 but he was pretty wet and soon very cold. 



We traversed some distance to the north, Gran on the ice 

 foot and myself on the mush. At every footstep water oozed 

 up, and this doubtful belt was forty feet wide. I managed to 

 get to land, but we could not have got the sledge over. We 

 returned to find Debenham had gone through also. So I deter- 

 mined to make our survey from where we left the sledge and to 

 return immediately thereto. 



First, however, we had to get Gran off the ice foot. He 

 threw his bag out towards us and as I went to get it I went in 

 nearly to my waist. Luckily I managed to lean back on to less 

 rotten mush. Then we lashed the bag ropes together and threw 

 them to him. He threw the tent poles on to the mush and then 

 launched himself spread-eagle on the poles. The whole floe 

 rocked up and down like a jelly, but the poles kept him up 

 and he reached us without further mishap. 



This slush half ice, half snow was much riskier than 

 broken floe, for there was nothing to grip, and I think Forde 

 voiced our opinions when he said : * You done a wise thing to 

 give that place a miss ! ' Gran and I were pretty chilled when 

 we reached our tent, but soon got warm in our bags and slept 

 off any ill effects. 



We had an even more difficult time returning. My diary re- 

 cords it as ' hellish.' We managed the two miles with the light 

 sledge in four hours, during which we experienced an interesting 

 anatomical phenomenon as if our insides were getting driven 

 out of our backs by the drag of the harness! 



Next day by evening we reached Camp Geology again. 

 Everything was buried in snow. A tin of biscuits weighing 40 

 Ibs. had been blown six feet off a rock. Granite Hut was half 

 filled with snow and we later found that our flagpole on the 

 bluff, although of male bamboo two inches thick, was broken 

 into a dozen strands. 



December 10 was a Sunday, and we registered our highest 

 temperature of + 40. We expected the warmest day early 

 in January, but it rarely rose above freezing point any more 



