152 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
chorus for our benefit; it was quite like coming home. 
Inside the hut, the cause of the blackness was apparent, 
they had a blubber fire going, an open one, with no chim- 
ney or uptake for the smoke. After such a long open-air 
life it fairly choked me, and for once I could not eat a 
square meal. We all slept in a row against the west wall of 
the hut with our feet inboard. 
“The next morning Captain Scott, Bill, Cherry and I set 
out to walk to Castle Rock and meet the other party. It 
was fairly fizzing from the sea, but clear. Once up on the 
Heights, however, we seemed to get less wind. A couple , 
of hours later we were at the great rock, Castle Rock, 
which is one of the best landmarks about here. The party 
in the Saddle Camp had relayed two of the sledges up the 
slope; these we hauled on to the top while the two ponies _ 
were harnessed and brought up. There were three sledges 
left to take on altogether, so the ponies took one each and 
we the other. Meanwhile Captain Scott walked over the 
shoulder under Castle Rock tosee down the Strait and came 
back with the intelligence that he could hardly believe his 
eyes, but half the Glacier Tongue had broken off and dis- 
appeared. This great Tongue of ice had stood there on 
arrival of the Discovery, ten years before, and had remained 
ever since; it had a depét of Shackleton’s on it, and Camp- 
bell had depdted his fodder on it for us. On the eventful 
night of the break-up of the ice at least three miles of the 
Tongue which had been considered practically terra firma 
had gone, after having been there probably for centuries. 
We headed for the hut: Bill had looked out a route for 
the ponies, to avoid slippery places. It started to bliz, but 
was not too thick for us to see our bearings. At the top of 
Ski Slope the ponies were taken out of the sledges and led 
down a circuitous route over the rocks. The rest of us put 
everything we wanted on one sledge and leaving the others — 
up there went down the slope as before. The two ponies 
arrived before us and were stabled in the verandah. 
“That night for the first time since the establishment 
of Safety Camp the depdt party were all together again, 
minus six ponies. In concluding my report to Captain 
