CHAPTER XVI 



THE SEARCH JOURNEY 

 From my own diary- 

 Sleep after toyle, port after stormie seas, 

 Ease after warre, death after life, does greatly please. 



Spenser, The Faerie Quee?i. 



October 28. Hut Point. A beautiful day. We finished dig- 

 ging out the stable for the mules this morning and brought 

 in some blubber this afternoon. The Bluff has its cap on, 

 but otherwise the sky is nearly clear : there is a little cumulus 

 between White Island and the Bluff, the first I have seen 

 this year on the Barrier. It is most noticeable how much 

 snow has disappeared off the rocks and shingle here. 



October 29. Hut Point. The mule party, under Wright, 

 consisting of Gran, Nelson, Crean, Hooper, Williamson, 

 Keohane and Lashly, left Cape Evans at 10.30 and arrived 

 here at 5 p.m. after a good march in perfect weather. They 

 leave Debenham and Archer at the hut, and I am afraid it 

 will be dull work for them the next three months. Archer 

 turned out early and made some cakes which they have 

 brought with them. They camped for lunch seven miles 

 from Cape Evans. 



This is the start of the Search Journey. Everything 

 which forethought can do has been done, and to a point 

 twelve miles south of Corner Camp the mules will be trav- 

 elling light owing to the depots which have been laid. 

 The barometer has been falling the last few days and is now 

 low, while the Bluff is overcast. Yet it does not look like 



472 



