THE GRANITE HARBOUR EXPEDITION 335 



How anxiously we watched the little dial of the sledge- 

 meter. Very slowly the miles rolled away, and when we had 

 done four more stages 1 stopped for a cup of tea and some 

 block chocolate. These short halts did not make one stiff 

 like a longer wait. Finally, we halted at 8.30 after eleven 

 hours on the move. We had sledged eight miles as the 

 result of the day's work, and were already feeling fitter and 

 enjoying our pemmican. How greasy and thick it tastes at 

 first ! and yet how soon it seems to vanish almost at sight ! 



The sun came out and there was a tremendous glare from 

 the snow. Goggles were donned and were not an unmixed 

 blessing. The hot glare disappeared, but sweat rolled down 

 one's forehead and fogged the glasses so that it was impossible 

 to see through them. 



On the 8th we continued our " trek " towards Butter 

 Point. There is very little variety on these journeys; you 

 pull till you are tired — not talking much, for that uses too 

 much breath, but thinking of all sorts of topics. As long as 

 one leans forward in the belt and keeps time there is not 

 much else to engage one's attention. Even the leader merely 

 notes some object in his line of march and plugs steadily on 

 until it is time to halt for the five minutes' spell ! 



At 4 o'clock we were nearly 20 miles from the hut, and 

 therefore, as we halted for tea, still ten miles from Butter 

 Point. It was gloomy and soon started drifting again, always 

 from the south-east and always giving but a short warning of 

 low driving snow before the full blast struck us. 



This blizzard lasted thirty-six hours. We lay in our bags 

 and slept most of the time. It is wonderful how one's 

 appetite decreases during these enforced waits. The normal 

 amount of thirty-three ounces of dried food per day would be 

 enormous in ordinary life ; when lying snug in one's bag, no 

 energy is used in work and little in heat, so that about twenty 

 ounces seems sufficient, and one of the meals can be cut out 

 with ease. 



On Saturday morning I turned out at 3 a.m., and a little 

 later it was obviously clearing. The drift was deep over the 

 sledges and nearly over the door. We had been delayed so 

 much that I felt we must now turn back, so we packed the 

 tent and one meal on the small sledge and left a large flag on 

 a bamboo by the larger sledge. 



