THE POLAR JOURNEY 341 



depoted more of it on the cairns. As it was, what we did 

 not eat was given to the dogs. With some tins of extra oil 

 and a depoted pony the Polar Party would probably have 

 got home in safety. 



On December 3 we roused out at 2.30 a.m. It was 

 thick and snowy. As we breakfasted the blizzard started 

 from the south-east, and was soon blowing force 9, a full 

 gale, with heavy drift. " The strongest wind I have known 

 here in summer." x It was impossible to start, but we 

 turned out and made up the pony walls in heavy drift, one 

 of them being blown down three times. By 1.30 p.m. the 

 sun was shining, and the land was clear. We started at 2, 

 with what we thought was Mount Hope showing up ahead, 

 but soon great snow-clouds were banking up and in two 

 hours we were walking in a deep gloom which made it 

 difficult to find the track made by the man-hauling party 

 ahead. By the time we reached the cairn, which was always 

 built at the end of the first four miles, it was blowing hard 

 from the N.N. W. of all the unlikely quarters of the com- 

 pass. Bowers and Scott were on ski. 



" I put on my windproof blouse and nosed out the 

 track for two miles, when we suddenly came upon the tent 

 of the leading party. They had camped owing to the 

 difficulty of steering a course in such thick weather. The 

 ponies, however, with the wind abaft the beam were going 

 along splendidly, and Scott thought it worth while to 

 shove on. We therefore carried on another four miles, 

 making ten in all, a good half march, before we camped. 

 On ski it was simply ripping, except for the inability to 

 see anything at all. With the wind behind, and the good 

 sliding surface made by the wind-hardened snow, one 

 fairly slithered along. Camping was less pleasant as it was 

 blowing a gale by that time. We are all in our bags again 

 now, with a good hot meal inside one, and blow high or 

 blow low one might be in a worse place than a reindeer 

 bag." 2 



It was all right for the people on ski (and this in itself 

 gave us a certain sense of grievance), but things had not 



1 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 483. 2 Bowers. 



