306 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



of Safety Camp. They started on September 9 and camped 

 on the sea-ice beyond Cape Armitage that night, the mini- 

 mum temperature being - 45 . They dug out Safety Camp 

 next morning, and marched on towards Corner Camp. 

 The minimum that night was - 62. 3 . The next even- 

 ing they made their night camp as a blizzard was coming 

 up, the temperature at the same time being - 34. 5 and 

 minimum for the night - 40 . This is an extremely low 

 temperature for a blizzard. They made a start in a very cold 

 wind the next afternoon (September 12) and camped at 

 8.30 p.m. That night was bitterly cold and they found that 

 the minimum showed - 7 3. 3 for that night. Evans re- 

 ports adversely on the use of the eider-down bag and inner 

 tent, but here none of our Winter Journey men would 

 agree with him. 1 Most of September 13th was spent in 

 digging out Corner Camp which they left at 5 p.m., intend- 

 ing to travel back to Hut Point without stopping except 

 for meals. They marched all through that night with two 

 halts for meals and arrived at Hut Point at 3 p.m. on Sep- 

 tember 14, having covered a distance of 34.6 statute miles. 

 They reached Cape Evans the following day after an ab- 

 sence of G\ days. 2 



During this journey Forde got his hand badly frost- 

 bitten which necessitated his return in the Terra Nova in 

 March 1912. He owed a good deal to the skilful treat- 

 ment Atkinson gave it. 



Wilson was still looking grey and drawn some days, 

 and I was not too fit, but Bowers was indefatigable. Soon 

 after we got in from Cape Crozier he heard that Scott was 

 going over to the Western Mountains : somehow or other 

 he persuaded Scott to take him, and they started with Sea- 

 man Evans and Simpson on September 1 5 on what Scott 

 calls "a remarkably pleasant and instructive little spring 

 journey," 3 and what Bowers called a jolly picnic. 



This picnic started from the hut in a - 40 tempera- 

 ture, dragging 180 lbs. per man, mainly composed of 

 stores for the geological party of the summer. They pene- 



1 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. ii. p. 293. 

 2 Ibid. pp. 291-297 ; written by Lieutenant Evans. 3 Ibid. vol. i. p. 409. 



