$32 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



eight. We lost cairn and tracks together and made as 

 steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing. 

 Worse was to come — the surface is simply awful. In spite 

 of strong wind and full sail we have only done 5! miles. 

 We are in a very queer street, since there is no doubt we 

 cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly. " 1 



They did nearly ten miles that day, but on March 3 

 they had a terrible time. " God help us," wrote Scott, " we 

 can't keep up this pulling, that is certain. Amongst our- 

 selves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels 

 in his heart I can only guess. Putting on foot-gear in the 

 morning is getting slower and slower, therefore every day 

 more dangerous." 



The following extracts are taken from Scott's diary. 



11 March 4. hunch. We are in a very tight place in- 

 deed, but none of us despondent yet, or at least we pre- 

 serve every semblance of good cheer, but one's heart sinks 

 as the sledge stops dead at some sastrugi behind which the 

 surface sand lies thickly heaped. For the moment the tem- 

 perature is in the - 20 — an improvement which makes 

 us much more comfortable, but a colder snap is bound to 

 come again soon. I fear that Oates at least will weather 

 such an event very poorly. Providence to our aid ! We can 

 expect little from man now except the possibility of extra 

 food at the next depot. It will be real bad if we get there 

 and find the same shortage of oil. Shall we get there ? 

 Such a short distance it would have appeared to us on the 

 summit ! I don't know what I should do if Wilson and 

 Bowers weren't so determinedly cheerful over things." 



" Monday, March 5. Lunch. Regret to say going from 

 bad to worse. We got a slant of wind yesterday afternoon, 

 and going on 5 hours we converted our wretched morning 

 run of 3-0- miles into something over 9. We went to bed 

 on a cup of cocoa and pemmican solid with the chill off. 

 . . . The result is telling on all, but mainly on Oates, whose 

 feet are in a wretched condition. One swelled up tremend- 

 ously last night and he is very lame this morning. We 

 started march on tea and pemmican as last night — we pre- 



1 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. pp. 582, 583. 



