i9o 3 ] EXPERIENCES IN OTHER DIRECTIONS 155 



temperatures. Nearly every night the thermometer fell below 

 — 50 , and in the daytime it was very little above that mark. 

 After the effects of our blizzard we were extraordinarily un- 

 comfortable ; it was partly for this reason, and partly to test 

 the real marching capabilities of my party, that, our object 

 attained, I decided to put on the speed in crossing the fifty 

 miles of sea-ice which lay between us and our snug ship. We 

 crossed this stretch in less than two and a half days ; we were 

 to do better marching still under better conditions, but at the 

 time we were very pleased with this effort, and considering the 

 excessive cold and our heavily clad and ice-encumbered con- 

 dition, it was certainly worthy of note. It was on the night of 

 the 20th, therefore, that we tramped into our small bay and 

 saw the pleasantly familiar outlines of the ship. 



We were inclined to be exceedingly self-satisfied ; we had 

 accomplished our object with unexpected ease, we had done a 

 record march, and we had endured record temperatures— at 

 least, we thought so, and thought also how pleasant it would 

 be to tell of these things in front of a nice bright fire. As we 

 approached the ship, however, Hodgson came out to greet us, 

 and his first question was, ' What temperatures have you had ? ' 

 We replied by complacently quoting our array of minus fifties, 

 but he quickly cut us short by remarking that we were not in 

 it. It was evident, therefore, that we should have tales to 

 Jisten to as well as to tell. 



For such tales I draw once more on my diary : 

 ' September 22. — It is pleasant to be back in the ship again 

 after our hard spring journeys. They have awakened us all 

 and given us plenty of fresh matter to talk about, so that 

 there is a running fire of chaff and chatter all day. Every- 

 thing looks very bright and hopeful : the journeys have accom- 

 plished all that was expected of them, and there is not a sign 

 of our old enemy the scurvy ; and this in spite of the fact 

 that our travellers have endured the hardest conditions on 

 record. 



1 It is no small tribute to our sledging methods that our 

 people have come through temperatures nearly seventy degrees 



