$66 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



"Ulysses" adopted: "To strive, to seek, to find, and not 

 to yield." 



The open water stretched about a mile and a half south 

 of Tent Island, and here we left the ship to sledge the cross 

 to Hut Point at 8 a.m. on January 20. The party con- 

 sisted of Atkinson, Wright, Lashly, Crean, Debenham, 

 Keohane and Davies, the ship's carpenter and myself. 



11 Evening. Hut Point. We had a most unpleasant ex- 

 perience coming in. We struck wind and drift just about 

 a mile from Hut Point: then we saw there was a small 

 thaw pool off the Point, and came out to give it a wide 

 berth. Atkinson put his feet down into water: we turned 

 sharp out, and then Crean went right in up to his arms, 

 and we realized that the ice was not more than three or 

 four inches of slush. I managed to give him a hand out 

 without the ice giving, and we went on floundering about. 

 Then Crean went right in again, and the sledge nearly went 

 too: we pulled the sledge, and the sledge pulled him out. 

 Except for some more soft patches that was all, but it was 

 quite enough. I think we got out of it most fortunately." 



" Crean got some dry clothes here, and the cross has 

 had a coat of white paint and is drying. We went up 

 Observation Hill and have found a good spot right on the 

 top, and have already dug a hole which will, with the 

 rock alongside, give us three feet. From there we can 

 see that this year's old ice is in a terrible state, open water 

 and open water slush all over near the land — I have never 

 seen anything like it here. Off Cape Armitage and at the 

 Pram Point pressure it is extra bad. I only hope we can 

 find a safe way back." 



"You would not think Crean had had such a pair of 

 duckings to hear him talking so merrily to-night. . . ." 



" I really do think the cross is going to look fine." * 



Observation Hill was clearly the place for it, it knew 

 them all so well. Three of them were Discovery men who 

 lived three years under its shadow: they had seen it time 

 after time as they came back from hard journeys on the 

 Barrier: Observation Hill and Castle Rock were the two 



1 My own diary. 



