428 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



in the frontispiece to this book. "The ice in the two bays 

 to Cape Evans is quite new — formed this morning, I sup- 

 pose, with the rest that is in the Sound. There are open 

 leads between Glacier Tongue and Cape Evans, inside the 

 line joining the ends of the two. There is a big berg in 

 between Glacier Tongue and the Islands, and also a flat 

 one off Cape Evans." x 



We had some good freezing days after this, and on 

 April 5 "we tried the ice this afternoon. It is naturally 

 slushy and salt, but some hundred yards from the old ice 

 it is six inches thick : probably it averages about this thick- 

 ness all over the Sound." 2 Then we had a hard blizzard, 

 on the fourth day of which it was possible to get up the 

 Heights again and see for some distance. As far as could 

 be judged the ice in the two bays had remained firm : these 

 bays are those formed on either side of Glacier Tongue, by 

 the Hut Point Peninsula on the south, and by Cape Evans 

 and the islands on the north. 



On April 10 Atkinson, Keohane and Dimitri started 

 for Cape Evans, meaning to travel along the Peninsula to 

 the Hutton Cliffs, and thence to cross the sea-ice in these 

 bays, if it proved to be practicable. The amount of day- 

 light was now very restricted, and the sun would disap- 

 pear for the winter a week hence. Arrived at the Hutton 

 Cliffs, where it was blowing as usual, they lost no time in 

 lowering themselves and their sledge on to the sea-ice, and 

 were then pleasantly surprised to find how slippery it was. 

 " We set sail before a strong following breeze and, all sit- 

 ting on the sledge, had reached the Glacier Tongue in 

 twenty minutes. We clambered over the Tongue, and, our 

 luck and the breeze still holding, we reached Cape Evans, 

 completing the last seven miles, all sitting on the sledge, 

 in an hour." 



" There I called together all the members and ex- 

 plained the situation, telling them what had been done, and 

 what I then proposed to do; also asking them for their 

 advice in this trying time. The opinion was almost unani- 

 mous that all that was possible had been already done. 



1 My own diary. 2 Ibid. 



