374 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



of arrowroot. (This is the most satisfying stuff imaginable.) 

 Then came 2-| square inches of plum-duff each, and a good 

 mug of cocoa washed down the whole. In addition to this 

 we had four caramels each and four squares of crystallized 

 ginger. I positively could not eat all mine, and turned in 

 feeling as if I had made a beast of myself. I wrote up my 

 journal — in fact I should have liked somebody to put me 

 to bed. 



December 26. We have seen many new ranges of 

 mountains extending to the S.E. of the Dominion Range. 

 They are very distant, however, and must evidently be the 

 top of those bounding the Barrier. They could only be 

 seen from the tops of the ridges as waves up which we are 

 continually mounting. Our height yesterday morning by 

 hypsometer was 8000 feet. That is our last hypsometer 

 record, as I had the misfortune to break the thermometer. 

 The hypsometer was one of my chief delights, and nobody 

 could have been more disgusted than myself at its breaking. 

 However, we have the aneroid to check the height. We are 

 going gradually up and up. As one would expect, a con- 

 siderable amount of lassitude was felt over breakfast after 

 our feed last night. The last thing on earth I wanted to do 

 was to ship the harness round my poor tummy when we 

 started. As usual a stiff breeze from the south and a tem- 

 perature of - 7 blew in our faces. Strange to say, how- 

 ever, we don't get frost-bitten. I suppose it is the open-air 

 life. 



I could not tell if I had a frost-bite on my face now, as 

 it is all scales, so are my lips and nose. A considerable 

 amount of red hair is endeavouring to cover up matters. 

 We crossed several ridges, and after the effects of over- 

 feeding had worn off" did a pretty good march of thirteen 

 miles. 



[No more Christmas Days, so no more big hooshes. 1 ] 



December 27. There is something the matter with 

 our sledge or our team, as we have an awful slog to keep up 

 with the others. I asked Dr. Bill and he said their sledge 

 ran very easily. Ours is nothing but a desperate drag with 



1 Lashly's diary. 



