198 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Dec. 



and finally removed. Thus it was that on turning homeward 

 on December i, whilst we enjoyed the relief of having the 

 biting wind at our back, new difficulties soon appeared. 

 Scarcely had we started our return march when the weather 

 again grew overcast, and, though we struggled on for the first 

 part of the day, the sky eventually became so gloomy that we 

 were forced to camp and sacrifice more than an hour of the 

 afternoon. On December 2, this sort of thing was still worse 

 and landed us at one time in what seemed a most serious 

 position, as my diary shows : 



' We started at seven o'clock this morning, the sky very 

 overcast, but the sun struggling through occasionally. All 

 went well until ten o'clock, when the sun vanished and the light 

 became shockingly bad. We plunged on for an hour amongst 

 high sastrugi; our sledge capsized repeatedly and we ourselves 

 sprawled in all directions. At length we could see nothing at 

 all, and our falls became so frequent and heavy that I felt that 

 we were running too great a risk of injury to our limbs, and 

 that there was nothing for it but to camp. So here we are in 

 our sleeping-bag in the middle of the marching-hours, and I 

 don't like the look of things at all. We are about seventeen 

 marches out from the glacier, but of course this includes the 

 days when, with full numbers, we did poor distances. We 

 have something over fourteen days' full rations left, and 

 perhaps twelve days' oil allowance. If we could get clear 

 weather, I believe we have not over-estimated our marching 

 powers in supposing we can cover the longer daily distance 

 required to reach the safety of the glacier, but this overcast 

 weather puts an entirely new complexion on the matter ; it is 

 quite clear that we cannot afford delay. I don't like to think 

 of half rations ; we are all terribly hungry as it is, and I feel 

 sure that we cannot cut down food without losing our strength. 

 I try to think that at this altitude there cannot be long spells 

 of overcast weather, but I cannot forget that if this condition 

 should occur frequently we shall be in " Queer Street." ' 



The reader will remember that this same difficulty with an 

 overcast sky had been met by my southern party of the previous 



