ANOTHER SPRING 461 



five men to disappear down a crevasse. Where three men 

 got through (and he said it would be impossible to get 

 worse stuff than they came through), five men would be 

 still better off. This is not my view, however. I think that 

 the extra weight of one man might make all the difference 

 in crossing a big crevasse : and if several men fell through 

 one of those great bridges when sledge and men were all 

 on it, I do not think the bridge would hold the sledge." x 



Several trips were made to Cape Royds over the Barne 

 Glacier, and then by portaging over the rocks to Shackle- 

 ton's old hut. The sea was open here, except for small 

 niches of ice, and the hut and the cape were compara- 

 tively free from drifts ; probably the open water had swal- 

 lowed the drifting snow. Not so Hut Point, which was sur- 

 rounded by huge drifts : the verandah which we had built 

 up as a stable was filled from floor to roof : there was no 

 ice-foot to be seen, only a long snow-slope from the door to 

 the sea-level. The hut itself, when we had dug our way 

 into it, was clear. We took down stores for the Search 

 Journey, and brought back with us the only surviving 

 sledge-meter. 



These instruments, which indicate by a clock-work 

 arrangement the distance travelled in miles and yards, are 

 actuated by a wheel which runs behind the sledge. They 

 are of the greatest possible use, especially when sledging 

 out of sight of land on the Barrier or Plateau, and we 

 bitterly regretted that we had no more. They do not have 

 an easy time on a glacier, and we lost the mechanism of 

 one of our three Polar Journey meters when on the Beard- 

 more. Dog-driving is hard on them; and pony-driving 

 when the ponies are like Christopher plays the very deuce. 

 Anyway we found we had only one left for this year, and 

 this was more or less a dud. It was mended so far as pos- 

 sible but was never really reliable, and latterly was useless. 

 A lot of trouble was taken by Lashly to make another with 

 a bicycle wheel from one of our experimental trucks, the 

 revolutions of which were marked on a counter which was 

 almost exactly similar to one of our anemometer registers. 



1 My own diary. 



