THE POLAR JOURNEY 391 



try and reach the depot, which we reached at 11 p.m. after 

 one of the most trying days of my life. Shall have reason 

 to never forget the 17 and 18 of January, 191 2. To-night 

 Mr. Evans is complaining of his eyes, more trouble ahead ! 



iqth January 191 2. 



After putting the depot in order and re-arranging 

 things, we kicked off again for D. [Lower Glacier] Depot. 

 Mr. Evans' eyes were very bad on starting this morning, 

 but we made a pretty good start. I picked some rock to-day 

 which I intend to try and get back with, as it is the only 

 chance we have had of getting any up to the present, and it 

 seemed a funny thing : the rock I got some pieces of looked 

 as if someone before me had been chipping some off. I 

 wonder if it was the Doctor's party, but we could not see 

 any trace of their sledge, but we could account for that, as 

 it was all blue ice and not likely to leave any marks behind. 

 After travelling for some distance we got on the same ridge 

 as we ran along on the outward Journey and passed what 

 we took to be the Doctor's Xmas Camp. We had not gone 

 far past before we got into soft snow, so we decided to 

 camp for lunch. Mr. Evans' eyes being very bad indeed, 

 we are travelling now on our own, I am leading and telling 

 him the course I am steering, that is the different marks on 

 the mountains, but we shall keep on this ridge for some 

 distance yet. After lunch to-day we did not proceed far 

 before we decided to camp, the surface being so bad and 

 Mr. Evans' eyes so bad, we thought it would do us all good 

 to have a rest. Last night we left a note for Capt. Scott, but 

 did not say much about our difficulties just above the 

 Cloudmaker, as it would be better to tell him when we see 

 him. 



20M January 19 12. 



We did not get away very smart to-day, but as we 

 found the surface very soft, we decided to go on ski. Mr. 

 Evans is still suffering with his eyes and badly, after get- 

 ting his ski on we tied him on to the trace so that he could 

 help to drag a bit, when we were troubling about the 

 ridges we came over on our outward Journey, but strange 



