THE DEPOT JOURNEY 139 
seal crack. Having crossed this they wheeled to the right 
in the direction of Cape Armitage and disappeared into a 
black indefinite mist, which seemed to pervade everything 
in that direction. We heard afterwards that in a mile or two 
they came to some alarming signs and, turning, made for 
the Gap where they got up on to the land about midnight. 
“‘T plugged on in their tracks, till we came to the seal 
crack which was an old pressure-ridge running many miles 
S.W. from Pram Point. We considered the ice behind this 
crack—over which we had just come—fast ice; it was older 
ice than that beyond, as it had undoubtedly frozen over 
first. Having crossed the crack we streaked on for Cape 
Armitage. The animals were going badly, owing to the 
effects of the blizzard, and frequent stoppages were neces- 
sary. On coming to some shaky ice we headed farther west 
as there were always some bad places off the cape, and I 
thought it better to make a good circuit. Crean, who had 
been over the ice recently, told me it was all right farther 
round. However, about a mile farther on I began to have 
misgivings ; the cracks became too frequent to be pleasant, 
and although the ice was from five to ten feet thick, one 
does not like to see water squelching between them, as we 
did later. It spells motion, and motion on sea-ice means 
breakage. I shoved on in the hope of getting on better ice 
round the cape, but at last came a moving crack, and that 
decided me to turn back. We could see nothing owing to 
the black mist, everything looked solid as ever, but I knew 
enough to mistrust moving ice, however solid it seemed. 
It was a beastly march back: dark, gloomy and depressing. 
The beasts got more and more down in their spirits and 
stopped so frequently that I thought we would never reach 
the seal crack. I said to Cherry, however, that I would take 
no risks, and camp well over the other side on the old sound 
ice if we could get there. This we managed to do eventu- 
ally. Here there was soft snow, whereas on the sea side of 
the crack it was hard: that is the reason we lost the dogs’ 
tracks at once on crossing. Even over this crack I thought 
it best to march as far in as possible. We got well into the 
bay, as far as our exhausted ponies would drag, before | 
