366 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



a long 800-foot flat-topped shelf — which seemed to show a bit 

 of beach. We had to camp at what seems one and a half to 

 two miles away in soft snow, which we kicked away and 

 shovelled off so as to get a fair spread for the floorcloth. 



"Friday, December 8, 191 1. — I doffed some of my clothes 

 and hung them up inside the tent, if so be they might dry a 

 little. Result, like a board, for the temperature was only +13. 

 However, I used my eiderdown, and was jolly snug and warm 

 and slept quite well. 



" My bag is wet outside and it wet the floorcloth. Trig- 

 ger's you can squeeze water out of. We must get a drying 

 spot on the coast. It is a fair morning with a gusty, cold, 

 plateau wind (W.). The sun is shining low down in the east 

 through cirrus ; but it does not look snowy or blizzy. 



" (Written Saturday 8 a.m.) We were about two miles 

 from the coast, the nearest being the end of the Kar Plateau. 

 We loaded up the sledge and gaily proceeded in that direc- 

 tion, anticipating arrival about noon. But we found we could 

 not pull the sledge, though I doubt if there is 400 lbs. on it. 

 It just stuck, with the prow covered with soft snow. Forde 

 gave words to £ pull all together ' (for he could see better than 

 I, being at the back), but it was no good. So we stuck up 

 the flag pole and packed all we could carry on our backs. Gran 

 went first with his very heavy bag (half water) and the tent 

 poles. He plugged away in great style, but made rather a 

 devious track as different parts of the coast appealed to him ! 

 Deb followed with a rucksack on his back and his bag also 

 (and the plane-table halfway). Forde took the tent and cloth, 

 but didn't wrap them up carefully, so that they rather impeded 

 his movements. I came last with a proper swag — rucksack in 

 front and bag behind, hung over my shoulders on my belt. 

 There we were trekking for the land to dry our things a bit 

 and do some geology. Gran got rather far ahead, and by the 

 time we arrived near the rocks he was manoeuvring with the 

 tent poles near the tide-crack. 



" This was most unsatisfactory ; a high ice-foot about two 

 feet or more, separated by one or two feet space of open water, 

 was bad enough, but nearly forty feet of the floe was soft and 

 mushy, and through the thick snow you could not tell which 

 was hard ice and which was open water. 



" There were seals all over this mushy stuff, and one came 



