1903] HARD CONDITIONS 187 



noting the appearance of objects which would be our leading 

 marks on returning to the glacier. 



The latitude also assisted me in putting into execution a 

 plan which I had thought out, and which, though it is some- 

 what technical, I give for the benefit of explorers who may be 

 in like case in future. I have already mentioned the loss of 

 the tables necessary for working out our observations, and 

 the prospect which lay before us of wandering over this great 

 snow-plain without knowing exactly where we were. The 

 matter had naturally been much in my thoughts, and whilst I 

 saw that there was no hope of working out our longitudes till 

 we got back to the ship, it occurred to me that we might 

 gather some idea of our latitude if I could improvise some 

 method of ascertaining the daily change in the sun's declination. 

 With this idea I carefully ruled out a sheet of my note- 

 book into squares with the intention of making a curve of the 

 sun's declination. I found on reflection that I had some data 

 for this curve, for I could calculate the declination for certain 

 fixed days, such as the day when the sun had returned to us, 

 and the day when it first remained above our horizon at mid- 

 night ; other points were given by observations taken at known 

 latitudes on the glacier. To make a long story short, I plotted 

 all these points on my squared paper, and joined them with a 

 freehand curve of which I have some reason to be proud, for 

 on my return to the ship I found it was nowhere more than 4' in 

 error. On the journey I did not place so much reliance on 

 my handiwork as it deserved, for there is no doubt it gave us 

 our latitude with as great an accuracy as we needed at the 

 time. 



We had scarcely reached the summit of the ice-cap and 

 started our journey to the west, when troubles began to gather 

 about us once more. Our long stay in ' Desolation Camp ' 

 had covered our sleeping-bags and night- jackets with ice, and 

 now the falling temperature gave this ice little or no chance to 

 evaporate, so that our camping arrangements were attended 

 with discomforts from which there seemed little prospect of 

 relief. Each night the thermometer fell a trifle lower, until on 



