THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



1003 



We were so dead tired that we only did 

 an hour's march in the afternoon and 

 camped at 5 p. m. The temperature was 

 minus 19 Fahr. Fortunately for us, our 

 tracks were not obliterated by the bliz- 

 zard ; indeed, they stood up, making a 

 trail easily followed. Homeward bound 

 at last. Whatever regrets may be. we 

 have done our best." 



THE HOMEWARD MARCH 



The homeward march was rendered 

 difficult by shortage of food and attacks 

 of dysentery due to the meat from one 

 of the ponies. 



We had a strong wind behind us day 

 after day during this period, and this 

 contributed in a very large measure to 

 our safety, for in the weakened condition 

 we had then reached we could not have 

 made long marches against a head wind, 

 and without long marches we would 

 have starved between the depots. We 

 had a sail on the sledge, formed of the 

 floor cloth of a tent, and often the sledge 

 would overrun us, though at other times 

 it would catch in a drift and throw us 

 heavily. 



The results of the southern journey 

 may be summarized briefly. We found 

 that a chain of great mountains stretched 

 north by east from Mount Markham as 

 far as the 86th parallel, and that other 

 ranges ran toward the southwest, south, 

 and southeast between the 84th and the 

 86th parallels. We ascended one of the 

 largest glaciers in the world on to a high 

 plateau, which in all probability is a con- 

 tinuation of the Victoria Land plateau. 

 The geographical pole almost certainly 

 lies on this plateau, at an altitude of be- 

 tween 10,000 and 11,000 feet above sea- 

 level. The discovery of coal and-.fossil 

 wood has a very important bearing on 

 the question of the past geological his- 

 tory of the Antarctic continent. 



FROSTBITE AND SUNBURN AT THE SAME 

 TIME 



When we were traveling along during 

 the early part of the journey over the 

 level Barrier surface, we felt the heat of 

 the sun severely, though as a matter of 



fact the temperature was generally very 

 low, sometimes as low as zero Fahr., 

 though the season was the height of 

 summer. It was quite usual to feel one 

 side of the face getting frozen while the 

 other side was being sunburned. The 

 ponies would have frozen perspiration on 

 their coats on the sheltered side, while 

 the sun would keep the other side hot 

 and dry, and as the day wore on and the 

 sun moved round the sky the frosted 

 area on the animals would change its 

 position in sympathy. 



I remember that on December 4 we 

 were marching stripped to our shirts, 

 and we got very much sunburned, though 

 at noon that day the air temperature 

 showed ten degrees of frost. When we 

 started to climb the glacier and marched 

 close to the rocks, we felt the heat much 

 more, for the rocks acted as radiators, 

 and this experience weighed with me in 

 deciding to leave all the spare clothing 

 and equipment at the Upper Glacier 

 depot, about 7,000 feet up. We did not 

 expect to have to climb much higher, but 

 we did not reach the plateau until we had 

 climbed over 10,000 feet above sea-level, 

 and so we felt the cold extremely. Our 

 wind-proof Burberry clothing had be- 

 come thin by this time, and had been 

 patched in many places in consequence 

 of having been torn on the sharp ice. 



The wind got in through a tear in my 

 Burberry trousers one day and I was 

 frost-bitten on the under part of the knee. 

 This frost-bite developed into an open 

 wound, into which the wool from my 

 underclothing worked, and I had finally 

 to perform a rather painful operation 

 with a knife before the wound would 

 heal. We were continually being frost- 

 bitten up on the plateau, and when our 

 boots had begun to give out and we were 

 practically marching on the sennegrass- 

 inside the finnesko our heels got frost- 

 bitten. My heels burst when we got ori 

 to hard stuff, and for some time my 

 socks were caked with b 1 ood at the end 

 of every day's march.: 'Finally Marshall 

 put some "newskin" on a pad, and that 

 stuck on well until the cracks had healed. 

 The scars are likely to remain with me. 



