528 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



and more severely than others who are smaller than he. 

 Evans must have had a most terrible time : I think it is 

 clear from the diaries that he had suffered very greatly 

 without complaint. At home he would have been nursed in 

 bed : here he must march (he was pulling the day he died) 

 until he was crawling on his frost-bitten hands and knees 

 in the snow — horrible : most horrible perhaps for those 

 who found him so, and sat in the tent and watched him die. 

 I am told that simple concussion does not kill as suddenly 

 as this: probably some clot had moved in his brain. 



For one reason and another they took very nearly as 

 long to come down the glacier with a featherweight sledge 

 as we had taken to go up it with full loads. Seven days' food 

 were allowed from the Upper to the Lower Glacier Depot. 

 Bowers told me that he thought this was running it fine. 

 But the two supporting parties got through all right, 

 though they both tumbled into the horrible pressure above 

 the Cloudmaker. The Last Return Party took 7 J days : 

 the Polar Party 10 days : the latter had been 25! days 

 longer on the plateau than the former. Owing to their 

 slow progress down the glacier the Polar Party went on 

 short rations for the first and last time until they camped 

 on March 1 9 : with the exception of these days they had 

 either their full, or more than their full ration until that 

 date. 



Until they reached the Barrier on their return journey 

 the weather can be described neither as abnormal nor as 

 unexpected. There were 300 statute miles (260 geo.) to be 

 covered to One Ton Depot, and 150 statute miles (130 

 geo.) more from One Ton to Hut Point. They had just 

 picked up one week's food for five men : between the 

 Beardmore and One Ton were three more depots each 

 with one week's food for five men. They were four men : 

 their way was across the main body of the Barrier out of 

 sight of land, and away from any immediate influence of 

 the comparatively warm sea ahead of them. Nothing was 

 known of the weather conditions in the middle of the Bar- 

 rier at this time of year, and no one suspected that March 

 conditions there were verv cold. Shackleton turned home- 



