468 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



Corner Camp. They started on October 14 with the two 

 dog-teams and found a most terrible surface on the Barrier, 

 the sledges sometimes sinking as far as the ' fore-and-afters ' ; 

 the minimum temperatures the first two nights were - 39 

 and -2 5 ; strong blizzard at Corner Camp ; a lie-up for 

 a day and a half, before they could push on in wind and drift 

 and lay the depot. The dogs ran back from Corner Camp 

 to Hut Point on October 19, a distance of thirty miles. 

 Three miles from Corner Camp three dogs of Atkinson's 

 team fell into a crevasse, one of them falling right down to 

 the length of his harness. The rest of the team, however, 

 pulled on, and dragged the three dogs out as they went. 

 Atkinson lost his driving-stick, which was left standing in 

 the snow and served to mark a place to be avoided. Alto- 

 gether a rather lucky escape : two men out alone with two 

 dog-teams are somewhat helpless in case of emergency. 



On October 25 Dimitri and I started to take a further 

 depot out to Corner Camp with the two dog-teams, pulling 

 about 600 lbs. each. We found a much better surface than 

 that experienced by Atkinson ; in places really smooth and 

 hard. " It is good to be out again in such weather, and it 

 has been a very pleasant day." The minimum was only 

 -24 that night, and we reached Corner Camp on the 

 afternoon of the next day, following the old tracks where 

 possible, and halting occasionally to hunt when we lost 

 them. " Here we made the depot and the dogs had a rest 

 of 3^ hours, and two biscuits. It was quaint to see them 

 waiting for more food, for they knew they had not had their 

 full whack." 1 



There was plenty of evidence that the Barrier had 

 moved a long way during the last year. It had buckled up 

 the sea-ice at Pram Point ; there were at least three new 

 and well-marked undulations before reaching Corner Camp; 

 and the camp itself had moved visibly, judged by the bear- 

 ings and sketches we possessed. I believe the annual move- 

 ment had not been less than half a mile. 



Corner Camp is a well-known trap for blizzards on the 

 line of their exit at Cape Crozier, and it was clouding up, 



1 My own diary. 



