1876 APPEARANCE OF SCURVY. 93 



'Not only was the slope travelling very slow, but 

 both men and sledges suffered from it. The work was 

 unusually hard, and the strain on the ankles caused 

 them to swell and become stiff; the heavily-loaded 

 sledges, from continually resting on one runner, bent 

 it inwards, and in the case of the five-man sledge, not 

 only exhausted the supply of spare uprights, but 

 eventually proved the ruin of the entire runner. How- 

 ever, the end was near at hand, and on the morning 

 of the 5th we encamped at Cape Stanton, which would 

 have been in sight the whole time had not the weather 

 been densely thick. 



' Our next start was made in high spirits, the 

 slopes were passed, the sun shone once more, and a 

 wide bay lay before us, but though it was infinitely 

 better than what we had had, still deep soft snow 

 made our distances travelled very short. It was at the 

 end of this journey, May 6th, that J. J. Hand, one of 

 my sledge crew, told me in answer to my inquiry as 

 to why he was walking lame, that his legs were 

 becoming very stiff; he had spoken to Dr. Coppinger 

 about them, but attributing the stiffness and soreness 

 then to several falls that he had had, he did not think 

 much of it, before that officer's departure ; now, how- 

 ever, there was pain as well as stiffness, and both were 

 increasing. 



' In our next journey we passed another fine bay, 

 whose level and unbroken surface appeared not to have 

 been disturbed for many years. During lunch-time we 

 dug through two and-a-half feet of snow, and came 

 to ice which was perfectly fresh for three inches 

 down ; this was almost at the entrance of the bay. I 



