28 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Nov. 



ment had been left with Shackleton in the advanced position, 

 and, of course, we could see nothing of it through the haze. 

 We followed the old tracks for some way, until the light got 

 so bad that we repeatedly lost sight of them, when we were 

 obliged to halt and grope round for them. So far we were 

 only in danger of annoying delays, but a little later a brisk 

 breeze sprang up, and to our consternation rapidly drifted up 

 the old tracks ; there was nothing for it but to strike out a 

 fresh course of our own in the direction in which we supposed 

 the camp to lie, which we did, and, getting on as fast as 

 possible, had the satisfaction of sighting the camp in about 

 half an hour. " All's well that ends well," and luckily the fog 

 was not very thick ; but the incident has set us thinking that 

 if very thick weather were to come on, the party away from 

 the camp might be very unpleasantly situated, so in future we 

 shall plant one or two flags as we advance with the first load, 

 and pick them up as we come on with the second.' 



' December 2. — We noticed again to-day the cracking of the 

 snow-crust ; sometimes the whole team with the sledges get on 

 an area when it cracks around us as sharply and as loudly as 

 a pistol shot, and this is followed by a long-drawn sigh as the 

 area sinks. When this first happened the dogs were terrified, 

 and sprang forward with tails between their legs and heads 

 screwed round as though the threatened danger was behind ; 

 and, indeed, it gave me rather a shock the first time — it was 

 so unexpected, and the sharp report was followed by a distinct 

 subsidence. Though probably one dropped only an inch or 

 two, there was an instantaneous feeling of insecurity which is 

 not pleasant. Digging down to-night Shackleton found a 

 comparatively hard crust two or three inches under the soft 

 snow surface ; beneath this was an air space of about an inch, 

 then came about a foot of loose snow in large crystals, and 

 then a second crust. There is a good deal that is puzzling 

 about these crusts.' 



During the following year on our sledge journeys we 

 frequently dug into the snow surface to see what lay below, 

 and though we always found a succession of crusts with soft 



