THE SEARCH JOURNEY 473 



a blizzard to come. Two Adelie penguins, the first, came 

 to Cape Evans yesterday, and a skua was seen there on the 

 24th: so summer is really here. 



October 30. Hut Point. It is now 8 p.m., and the mules 

 are just off, looking very fit, keeping well together, and 

 giving no trouble at the start. Their leaders turned in this 

 afternoon, and to-night begins the new routine of night 

 marching, just the same as last year. It did look thick 

 on the Barrier this afternoon, and it was quite a question 

 whether it was advisable for them to start. But it is rolling 

 away now, being apparently only fog, which is now dis- 

 appearing before some wind, or perhaps because the sun is 

 losing its power. I think they will have a good march. 



November 2, 5 a.m. Biscuit Depot. Atkinson, Dimitri 

 and I, with two dog-teams, left Hut Point last night at 8.30. 

 We have had a coldish night's run, -2 1° when we left 

 after lunch, - 17 now. The surface was very heavy for 

 the dogs, there being a soft coating of snow over everything 

 since we last came this way, due no doubt to the foggy 

 days we have been having lately. The sledge-meter makes 

 it nearly 16 miles. 



The mule party has two days' start on us, and their 

 programme is to do twelve miles a day to One Ton Depot. 

 Their tracks are fairly clear, but there has been some drift 

 from the east since they passed. We pickedupour cairns well. 

 We are pretty wet, having been running nearly all the way. 



November 3. Early morning. 14^ miles. We are here 

 at Corner Camp, but not without a struggle. We left the 

 Biscuit Depot at 6.30 p.m. yesterday, and it is now 4 a.m. 

 The last six miles took us four hours, which is very bad 

 going for dogs, and we have all been running most of the 

 way. The surface was very bad, crusty and also soft : it 

 was blowing with some low drift, and overcast and snowing. 

 We followed the drifted-up mule tracks with difficulty and 

 are lucky to have got so far. The temperature has been a 

 constant zero. 



There is a note here from Wright about the mules, 

 which left here last night. They only saw two small cre- 

 vasses on the way, but Khan Sahib got into the tide-crack 



