422 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



day with a head wind and the temperature - 30 was cold. 

 The land was clear when we turned out and I could see 

 that we must be far outside our course, but almost immedi- 

 ately it became foggy. We made in towards the land a good 

 deal, and made a good run, but owing to the sledge-meter 

 being useless and the bad weather generally during the 

 last few days, I had a very hazy idea indeed where we were 

 when we camped, having been steering for some time by 

 the faint gleam of the sun through the mist. Just after 

 camping Dimitri suddenly pointed to a black spot which 

 seemed to wave to and fro : we decided that it was the flag 

 of the derelict motor near Corner Camp which up to that 

 time I thought was ten to fifteen miles away: this was a 

 great relief, and we debated packing up again and going to 

 it, but decided to stay where we were. 



It was fairly clear on the morning of March 14, which 

 was lucky, for it was now obvious that we were miles from 

 Corner Camp and much too near the land. The flag we 

 had seen must have been a miraged piece of pressure, and 

 it was providential that we had not made for it, and found 

 worse trouble than we actually experienced. Try all I 

 could that morning, my team, which was leading, insisted 

 on edging westwards. At last I saw what I thought was a 

 cairn, but found out just in time that it was a haycock or 

 mound of ice formed by pressure : by its side was a large 

 open crevasse, of which about fifty yards of snow-bridge 

 had fallen in. For several miles we knew that we were 

 crossing big crevasses by the hollow sound, and it was with 

 considerable relief that I sighted the motor and then Corner 

 Camp some two or three miles to the east of us. "Dimitri 

 had left his Alpine rope there, and also I should have liked 

 to have brought in Evans' sledge, but it would have meant 

 about five miles extra, and I left it. I hope Scott, finding 

 no note, will not think we are lost." x 



Dimitri seemed to be getting worse, and we pushed on 

 until we camped that night only fifteen miles from Hut 

 Point. My main anxiety was whether the sea-ice between 

 us and Hut Point was in, because I felt that the job of get- 



1 My own diary. 



