3 $6 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



" I saw Teddy struggling ahead and Scott astern, but 

 we were the worst off as the leading team had topped the 

 rise and I was too blind to pick out a better trail. We 

 fairly played ourselves out that time, and finally had to 

 give it up and relay. Halving the load we went forward 

 about a mile with it, and, leaving that lot, went back for 

 the remainder. So done were my team that we could do 

 little more than pull the half loads. Teddy's team did the 

 same, and though Scott's did not, we camped practically 

 the same time, having gone over our distance three times. 

 Mount Kyffin was still ahead of us to the left: we seemed 

 as if we can never come up with it. To-morrow Scott 

 decided that if we could not move our full loads we would 

 start relaying systematically. It was a most depressing 

 outlook after such a day of strenuous labour." * We got 

 soaked with perspiration these days, though generally 

 pulling in vest, pants, and windproof trousers only. 

 Directly we stopped we cooled quickly. Two skuas 

 appeared at lunch, attracted probably by the pony 

 flesh below, but it was a long way from the sea for them 

 to come. On Thursday December 14, Scott wrote : 

 " Indigestion and the soggy condition of my clothes kept 

 me awake for some time last night, and the exceptional 

 exercise gives bad attacks of cramp. Our lips are getting 

 raw and blistered. The eyes of the party are improving, 

 I am glad to say. We are just starting our march with no 

 very hopeful outlook." 



But we slogged along with much better results. " Once 

 into the middle of the glacier we had been steering more 

 or less for the Cloudmaker and by supper to-day were 

 well past Mount Kyffin and were about 2000 feet up 

 after an estimated run of 1 1 or 12 statute miles. But the 

 most cheering sign was that the blue ice was gradually 

 coming nearer the surface; at lunch it was two feet down, 

 and at our supper camp only one foot. In pitching our 

 tent Crean broke into a crevasse which ran about a foot 

 in front of the door and there was another at Scott's door. 

 We threw an empty oil can down and it echoed for a 



1 Bowers. 



