160 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
: : : : oe | 
still open water, owing to the winds which swept the ice _ 
out to sea almost as soon as it was formed. | 
On the top of all the anxieties which had oppressed him _ 
lately Scott had a great fear that a swell so phenomenal as _ 
to break up Glacier Tongue, a landmark which had prob- — 
ably been there for centuries, might have swept away our 
hut at Cape Evans. He was so alarmed about it that 
he told Wilson and myself to prepare to form a sledg- 
ing party with him to penetrate the Erebus icefalls and 
reach Cape Evans. “‘ Went yesterday to Castle Rock with 
Wilson to see what chance there might be of getting to 
Cape Evans. The day was bright and it was quite warm 
walking inthesun. There is no doubt the route to Cape 
Evans lies over the worst corner of Erebus. From this 
distance (some 7 or 8 miles at least) the whole mountain 
side looks a mass of crevasses, but a route might be found 
at a level of 3000 or 4000 feet.” After some days the 
project was abandoned as being hopeless. 
On March 8 Bowers led a party to bring in the gear and 
provisions which had been left at Disaster Camp, the 
material, that is, which had been rescued from the sea-ice. 
They were away three days and found the pulling very 
hard. “At the corner of the bay the Barrier was buckled 
into round ridges which took a couple of hours to cross, 
We marched for some time alongside an enormous cre- 
vasse, which lay like a street near us. I examined it at 
one point which must have been 15 feet wide, and though 
it was impossible to see the bottom for snow cornices 
it was undoubtedly open as I could hear a seal blowing 
below.” 2 
Bowers’ letter describes them dragging their heavy load 
up the slope to Castle Rock: “It took us all the morning to 
reach Saddle Camp with the loads in two journeys. I found 
a steady plod up a steep hill without spells is better and 
less exhausting than a rush and a number of rests. This 
theory I put into practice with great success. I don’t know 
whether everybody saw eye to eye with me over the idea 
1 Scott’s Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 201. 
owers 
