4 o6 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



a crevasse together, whereas in crossing them at right angles 

 this is rarely the case. 



We turned our backs finally on Cape Roberts at 1 1 a.m. 

 on the 5th. Our flag waved bravely, and below was the cairn 

 of stones covering the food left there by Scott's orders. If we 

 had to return it would give us a breathing space, but I never 

 saw the Cape again. For many months the flag was left in 

 solitude. The screw-pack never broke adrift that winter. In 

 the next spring, six desperate men sledging southward, as they 

 thought, to more endurable though no less solitary quarters, 

 here found the first news of the main party. Our depot pos- 

 sibly saved Browning's life. It certainly gave the Northern 

 party their first bearable day for many months. Brave old 

 flag ! it hangs in Tewkesbury in Priestley's home, and there 

 my old Browning was restored to me after many months ! 



So we marched on ; we were all stiff and out of training, 

 and the sledge did not pull easily, but we reached the tide- 

 crack and crossed it much more easily than I expected. After 

 lunch we pulled up the steep slope of the glacier, and to our 

 delight found the surface grow harder almost every hour. 

 But other troubles were upon us. For three days I felt it 

 would not benefit any one to write my diary. However, on 

 the evening of the 8th I wrote up the 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th 

 of February as follows : — 



"Then quite suddenly we came on huge crevasses all 

 round ; some open, which I took care not to keep too close 

 to, and others bridged. They seemed too wide to do anything 

 with ; but after cautioning the others to tread quietly, I 

 prodded across safely, though the ice-axe pushed in all its 

 length easily. Then the others followed, and the sledge after. 

 Gran fell in at the near edge and saw the straight wall. Several 

 of these were over twenty feet wide, but we had to chance 

 them, and tested them all before the sledge started. Then we 

 marched along between two fairly visible ones, and luckily 

 they didn't join. The surface got flatter and they died out 

 gradually so that we made fair progress. We came to another 

 enclosed snow basin, and I felt sure the seaward slope would 

 be safer. So it was, though Forde went down a small cre- 

 vasse. We pulled along this up to a sort of col — about eight 

 miles from Cape Roberts, — and here, as we were well beyond 

 the mouth of the Big Valley, we camped. 



