THE POLAR JOURNEY 369 



He wrote no diary at the Pole, but he made a very full 

 meteorological report while there in addition to working 

 out sights. The wonder is that he kept a diary at all. 



From Bowers' Diary 



December 22. Midsummer Day. We have had a 

 brilliant day with a temperature about zero and no wind, 

 altogether charming conditions. I rigged up the Upper 

 Glacier Depot after breakfast. We depoted two half-weekly 

 units for return of the two parties, also all crampons and 

 glacier gear, such as ice-axes, crowbar, spare Alpine rope, 

 etc., personal gear, medical, and in fact everything we could 

 dispense with. I left my old finnesko, wind trousers and 

 some other spare gear in a bag for going back. 



The two advance parties' weights amounted to 1 90 lbs. 

 per man. They consisted of the permanent weights, twelve 

 weeks' food and oil, spare sledge runners, etc. We said 

 good-bye and sent back messages and photo films with the 

 First Returning Party, which consisted of Atch, Cherry, 

 Silas and Keohane. It was quite touching saying farewell 

 to our good pals — they wished us luck, and Cherry, Atch 

 and Silas quite overwhelmed me. 



We went forward, the Owner's team as before consist- 

 ing of Dr. Bill, Titus and [Seaman] Evans, and [Lieut.] 

 Teddy Evans and Lashly coming over to my sledge and 

 tent to join up with Crean and myself. We all left the 

 depot cairn marked with two spare 10-feet sledge runners 

 and a large black flag on one. Our morning march was 

 not so long as usual owing to making up the depot, but 

 we did five miles uphill, hauling our heavier loads more 

 easily than the lighter ones yesterday. A fall in the tem- 

 perature had improved the surface. We had also sand- 

 papered our runners after the tearing up they had had on 

 the glacier ; this made a tremendous difference. The 

 afternoon march brought our total up to 10.6 miles for 

 the day on a S.W. course. 



We are steering S.W. with a view to avoiding ice-falls 

 which Shackleton met with. We came across very few cre- 

 vasses ; the few we found were as broad as a street, and 



2 B 



