THE GRANITE HARBOUR EXPEDITION 405 



but the snow was dry now, and I was going to cut down the 

 weights to a minimum. 



We could see open water about twenty miles off, but a 

 huge mass of ice-pack was apparent as far north as we could 

 see. There seemed to be a broad belt at least sixty miles 

 long, which was quite absent in January, 1902. 



Obviously our exploration of Terra Nova Bay was impos- 

 sible now, and it looked as if the ship would never reach us at 

 Cape Roberts. With good luck we might cross the Piedmont 

 Glacier to Cape Bernacchi in a few days, and Pennell might 

 find it easier to reach us there, while we should at any rate be 

 nearer to Headquarters. There was also a week's food there, 

 and we had now only a fortnight's sledging stores left. 



On February 4th Gran and I explored the sea ice below 

 the Piedmont for about four miles to the southward. We 

 passed through the fifteen bergs in the little bay and then got 

 among the screw-pack. This was covered with snow and 

 afforded extremely heavy going, as may be imagined. Near 

 the shore was a perfect network of new cracks with the ice 

 " working " all the time. Below the glacier wall was a deep 

 tide-crack four feet wide, but where the ice had fallen in we 

 managed to get across to fixed ice. As a result of this journey 

 I decided to march first along the sea ice and then climb up 

 the Piedmont at this point. 



Next morning I wrote a long letter to Pennell, which we 

 all signed. We made a dep6t on the highest point of the 

 Cape and fixed a flag alongside, with the letter in a little 

 matchbox. The journal for Captain Scott I left in my ditty 

 bag. I remorselessly weeded out every one's gear. We took 

 nothing but what we stood up in, and our notes and the in- 

 struments. Luckily, most of Debenham's and all Gran's 

 negatives were films, but I had to leave nearly all my plates 

 and my cherished Browning. I knew we had some bad cre- 

 vassed country to traverse — thirty miles of this, and then I 

 expected thirty miles of coast work largely over moraine and 

 rock, where we should have to portage the sledge and all our 

 gear on our backs. With a light sledge it was just possible 

 we might be able to raise it if it slipped down a crevasse ; and 

 this was quite a probable event, for in traversing along a pied- 

 mont glacier the party moves parallel to the crevasses. It thus 

 reaches them imperceptibly, and the whole outfit may be over 



