THE POLAR JOURNEY 515 



they left the Pole (January 1 9) Wilson wrote an account of 

 it. "We had a splendid wind right behind us most of the 

 afternoon and went well until about 6 p.m. when the sun 

 came out and we had an awful grind until 7.30 when we 

 camped. The sun comes out on sandy drifts, all on the 

 move in the wind, and temp. - 20 , and gives us an absol- 

 utely awful surface with no glide at all for ski or sledge, 

 and just like fine sand. The weather all day has been more 

 or less overcast with white broken alto-stratus, and for 3 

 degrees above the horizon there is a grey belt looking like 

 a blizzard of drift, but this in reality is caused by a con- 

 stant fall of minute snow crystals, very minute. Sometimes 

 instead of crystal plates the fall is of minute agglomerate 

 spicules like tiny sea-urchins. The plates glitter in the sun 

 as though of some size, but you can only just see them as 

 pin-points on your burberry. So the spicule collections are 

 only just visible. Our hands are never warm enough in 

 camp to do any neat work now. The weather is always un- 

 comfortably cold and windy, about - 23 , but after lunch 

 to-day I got a bit of drawing done." 1 



All the joy had gone from their sledging. They were 

 hungry, they were cold, the pulling was heavy, and two of 

 them were not fit. As long ago as January 14 Scott wrote 

 that Oates was feeling the cold and fatigue more than the 

 others 2 and again he refers to the matter on January 20. 3 

 On January 19 Wilson wrote : "We get our hairy faces 

 and mouths dreadfully iced up on the march, and often 

 one's hands very cold indeed holding ski-sticks. Evans, 

 who cut his knuckle some days ago at the last depot, has 

 a lot of pus in it to-night." January 20 : " Evans has got 

 4 or 5 of his finger-tips badly blistered by the cold. Titus 

 also his nose and cheeks — al[so] Evans and Bowers." Jan- 

 uary 28 : " Evans has a number of badly blistered finger- 

 ends which he got at the Pole. Titus' big toe is turning 

 blue-black." January 31 : "Evans' finger-nails all coming 

 off, very raw and sore." February 4 : " Evans is feeling 

 the cold a lot, always getting frost-bitten. Titus' toes are 

 blackening, and his nose and cheeks are dead yellow. 



1 Wilson. 2 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 541. 3 Ibid. p. 549. 



