140 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
camped and threw up the walls, fed the beasts, and retired 
to feed ourselves. Wehad only the primus with the missing 
cap and it took over 14 hours to heat up the water; how- 
ever, we had a cup of pemmican. It was very dark, and I 
mistook a small bag of curry powder for the cocoa bag, 
and made cocoa with that, mixed with sugar; Crean drank 
his right down before discovering anything was wrong. 
It was 2 p.m. before we were ready to turn in. I went out 
and saw everything quiet: the mist still hung to the west, 
but you could see a good mile and all was still. The sky 
was very dark over the Strait though, the unmistakable 
sign of open water. Iturnedin. Twoanda half hours later 
l awoke, hearing a noise. Both my companions were snor- 
ing, I thought it was that and was on the point of turning 
in again having seen that it was only 4.30, when I heard 
the noise again. I thought—‘ my pony is at the oats !’ and 
went out. 
‘“‘T cannot describe either the scene or my feelings. I 
must leave those to your imagination. We were in the 
middle of a floating pack of broken-up ice. The tops of the 
hills were visible, but all below was thin mist and as far as 
the eye could see there was nothing solid ; it was all broken 
up, and heaving up and down with the swell. Long black 
tongues of water were everywhere. The floe on which we 
were had split right under our picketing line, and cut poor 
Guts’ wall in half. Guts himself had gone, and a dark 
streak of water alone showed the place where the ice had 
opened under him. The two sledges securing the other 
end of the line were on the next floe and had been pulled 
right to the edge. Our camp was on a floe not more than 
30 yards across. I shouted to Cherry and Crean, and 
rushed out in my socks to save the two sledges ; the two 
floes were touching farther on and I dragged them to this 
place and got them on to our floe. At that moment our own 
floe split in two, but we were all together on one piece. I 
then got my finnesko on, remarking that we had been in 
a few tight places, but this was about the limit. I have been 
told since that I was quixotic not to leave everything and 
make for safety. You will understand, however, that I 
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