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174 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
old south wind in our faces; we crossed the Tongue and 
struggled against this till we could camp under the Hutton 
Cliffs where we got some shelter. All of us had our faces 
frost-bitten, the washing and shaving having made mine 
quite tender. It was a bit of a job getting up the cliff: we 
had to stand on top of a pile of fallen ice and hoist a 10-feet 
sledge on to our shoulders, at least on to the shoulders of 
the tall ones ; this just touched the overhanging cornice. 
A cornice of snow is caused by continual drift over a sharp 
edge: it takes all sorts of fantastic shapes, but usually 
hangs over like this. Looking edgeways it looks as if it 
must fall down, but as a matter of fact is usually very 
tough indeed. In this case steps were cut in it with an ice 
axe from our extemporary ladder, and Captain Scott and I 
got up first. With the aid of a rope and the ladder we got 
the light ones up first, and hauled up the gear last of all; 
hanging the sledge from the top with one rope enabled 
the last two to struggle up it assisted by a rope round them 
from above. It was a cold job and more frost-bites occurred 
in two of our novices, one on a foot and the other on a 
finger. 
“We faced the blast again, but got it partially behind us — 
on reaching the Heights. We camped for the night under 
Castle Rock on an inclined slope. It calmed down toa 
glorious night with a low temperature. Crean and | lay 
head down hill to make Nelson and Hooper—who had 
never sledged before—more comfortable. Asaresult Crean 
slipped half out of the tent and let in a cold stream of air 
under the valance, for which I was at a loss to account 
until the morning disclosed him thus, fast asleep of course. 
It takes a lot to worry Captain Scott’s coxswain. 
“We arrived at Hut Point and had a great reception | 
there, chiefly on account of the food we brought, parti-_ 
cularly the sugar. We had been living on some paraffin 
sugar when I left before, and even this was finished. The 
next day we stayed there to kill seals. Cherry and I skinned | 
one and then went for a walk round Cape Armitage. It was 
blowing big guns off the cape, fairly fizzing in fact. We 
went as far as Pram Point and then turned, coming in with 
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