I 7 4 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [DECEMBER 



off Cape Geology by the irresistible outward movement of the 

 glacier. Great diagonal cracks traversed the floe from the same 

 reason. So I decided to try to fix a stake on the Tongue, and 

 with the theodolite we could accurately fix its progress to the 

 east. 



The chief difficulty was to get a mark. We had no wood 

 to spare. Stones would sink into the ice. Finally I used the 

 broken end of the signal pole. I tied some sealskin on the top 

 for a flag, and painted it well with blubber soot, of which un- 

 limited quantities coated Granite Hut. Gran and I walked 

 over to the Tongue and marched 200 yards up it quite easily. 

 Then we suddenly came on many deep crevasses masked by snow 

 round which we had to steer carefully. 



I sighted south with the theodolite to the tent on Cape 

 Geology and north to a large crack in the granite of the Kar 

 Plateau. These directions were not collinear of course at first, 

 but I moved the theodolite until they were. This took a long 

 time and we had to go back to get round a crevasse before we 

 got it fixed. Returning we had a job to find a track and got 

 lost amid the parallel crevasses, which had an awkward tendency 

 to join after you had followed them for a few hundred yards. 

 On our return I found it was an excellent station, the stake lying 

 directly in line with the crack in the cliff 5 miles off across the 

 bay. 



As a result of the seal-flensing to provide a roof for Granite 

 Hut, I cut myself rather frequently. This was usual and a 

 matter of no moment generally. Seven of these cuts healed up 

 in a few days, but one on my right hand gave rise to much 

 trouble. We carried a medical chest full of pills, and Debenham 

 was sledge doctor and knew as much of medicine as Dr. Wilson 

 could get on a sheet of notepaper. He felt an expert at snow- 

 blindness, frost-bites and dyspepsia, but my hand baffled him. 

 However, Gran had served on many vessels in his naval training 

 and at first I had great faith in him. He gravely felt my pulse, 

 and then the arm-pit. ' Do you feel any pain here? ' I truth- 

 fully said ' No ! ' ' No blood poisoning in that finger,' says 

 Gran. Next day it was worse, and Gran proceeded to lance it 

 with great gusto, with the result that the thumb and two fingers 

 swelled double normal size. For a week I could not sleep, and 

 I tried all sorts of bandages and most of the pills as expert 



