70 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' (Jan. 



'Almost immediately after lunch the sledges began to out- 

 run us, and soon we were obliged to reef our sail, and even 

 with reduced canvas the mast was bending like a whip. The 

 great difficulties were to keep the course and to run the sledges 

 straight. At first we tried to steer by the direction of the 

 wind, and only discovered how wildly we were going by the 

 sail suddenly flying flat aback on either tack. The air was so 

 thick with driving snow that one could not see more than 

 twenty or thirty yards, and against the grey background it was 

 impossible to see the direction in which the snow was driving. 

 After this we tried steering by compass; Shackleton and 

 Wilson pushed on before the wind, whilst I rested the compass 

 in the snow, and when the needle had steadied directed them 

 by shouting ; then as they were disappearing in the gloom, I 

 had to pick up the compass and fly after them. It can be 

 imagined how tiring this sort of thing was to all concerned. 

 At length I made up my mind that we could only hope to hold 

 an approximate course, and getting Shackleton well ahead of 

 me, I observed the manner in which the snow was drifting 

 against his back, and for the remainder of the day I directed 

 him according to this rough guide. 



'As it was evident that, although we were not steering 

 straight, we were covering the ground quickly, we decided to 

 go on for two hours extra and take every advantage we could 

 from the wind. It was as much as we could do to hold out 

 for this time, and when at length the halt was called we were 

 all thoroughly exhausted. We had difficulty in getting our 

 tent up in the heavy gale that was now blowing, and, as luck 

 would have it, our wretched Primus lamp chose this occasion 

 to refuse work, so that it was late before we could prepare our 

 hot meal. 



' The march has been the most tiring we have done ; we 

 are more or less used to steady plodding, but to-day we have 

 sometimes had to run, sometimes to pull forward, sometimes 

 backward, and sometimes sideways, and always with our senses 

 keenly on the alert and our muscles strung up for instant 

 action. Wilson and I are very much ' done,' though only to 



