322 WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



Gran accompanied me for a walk two miles west to the 

 great shear crack, and there we spent some hours with pick 

 and shovel cutting a path through the upturned blocks of sea- 

 ice, here 5 feet high. 



Day started the motor sledges on the 23rd October. The 

 motor party consisted of Evans and Lashley with one motor 

 sledge, and Day and Hooper with the other. There was a 

 fearful array of cameras carried by Scott, Gran, Wright, and 

 myself, while Ponting had a regular battery (including a 

 cinematograph) loaded on his " pantechnicon " ! Two 

 troubles hampered the motors. The " pattens," or wooden 

 soles on the two tractor belts, would not grip the surface un- 

 less it consisted of hard snow. Just off the Cape was a belt 

 of smooth sea-ice with a thin layer of snow over it, and the 

 belts churned rapidly over this without moving the sledge 

 forward. They got them past this by laying down sacks, etc. 

 Then the motors were air-cooled, and apparently this was not 

 sufficient to keep the cylinders from overheating, especially 

 as the sledges went much slower than the ordinary motor car, 

 and so only a small current of cold air flowed past the two 

 front cylinders and less past the two rear cylinders. More- 

 over, the carburettor would not work satisfactorily when the 

 engine was down to Antarctic temperatures, and it was 

 necessary to warm it with a blow lamp ! After some 

 delays and readjustments they got the sledges well under 

 weigh to Big Razorback Island. 



Nelson, Wright, and I decided to traverse the Barne 

 Glacier (to the north) and align the stakes which Nelson had 

 planted in the preceding February. We hoped to detect 

 enough movement to give us the velocity of the glacier. 



The new canvas overshoes, with spiked aluminium soles, 

 were a godsend for slippery ice work, and we found them a 

 wonderful help. Wright went first, carrying a theodolite ; 

 then Nelson, with the food, and I had my camera and an ice- 

 axe. We were roped up, for we had to cross many small 

 crevasses. The stakes were generally made of barrel staves, 

 and only half of them had withstood the winter. 



We soon reached the " nail-stake," which showed the safe 

 western route to Shackleton's Hut. The stakes here turned 

 to the north and crossed a wide gully, and then climbed up a 

 steep shoulder with open crevasses, which we had to negotiate 



