4 oo WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



much, but Mr. Evans on the sledge makes it pretty heavy- 

 work for us both, but he says he is comfortable now. This 

 morning he wished us to leave him, but this we could not 

 think of. We shall stand by him to the end one way or 

 other, so we are the masters to-day. He has got to do as 

 we wish and we hope to pull him through. This morning 

 when we depoted all our gear I changed my socks and got 

 my foot badly frostbitten, and the only way was to fetch it 

 round. So although Mr. Evans was so bad he proposed to 

 stuff it on his stomach to try and get it right again. I did 

 not like to risk such a thing as he is certainly very weak, 

 but we tried it, and it succeeded in bringing it round, 

 thanks to his thoughtfulness, and I shall never forget the 

 kindness bestowed on me at a critical time in our travels, 

 but I think we could go to any length of trouble to assist 

 one another ; in such time and such a place we must trust 

 in a higher power to pull us through. When we pack up 

 now and have to move off we have to get everything ready 

 before we attempt to move the tent, as it is impossible for 

 our leader now to stand, therefore it is necessary to get him 

 ready before we start. We then pull the sledge alongside 

 his bag and lift him on to it and strap him on. It is a pain- 

 ful piece of work and he takes it pretty well, but we can't 

 help hurting him, as it is very awkward to lift him, the 

 snow being soft and the light so bad, but he dont complain. 

 The only thing we hear him grind his teeth. 



14M February 19 12. 



Another good start after the usual preparation, we have 

 not got much to pack, but it takes us some time to get our 

 invalid ready, the surface is very bad and our progress is 

 very slow, but we have proposed to go longer hours and 

 try to cover the distance, that is if we can stick it ourselves. 



l$tk February 19 12. 



We started in fine weather this morning, but it soon 

 came over thick and progress became slow. We had to 

 continually consult the compass, as we have had no wind to 

 assist us, but after awhile the sun peeped out and the wind 



