THE WINTER JOURNEY 239 
circulation of our feet like this—the only way then was to 
camp and get some hot water into ourselves before we took 
our foot-gear off. The difficulty was to know whether our 
feet were frozen or not, for the only thing we knew for 
certain was that we had lost all feeling in them. Wilson’s 
knowledge as a doctor came in here: many a time he had 
to decide from our descriptions of our feet whether to camp 
or to go on for another hour. A wrong decision meant 
disaster, for if one of us had been crippled the whole party 
would have been placed in great difficulties. Probably we 
should all have died. 
On June 29 the temperature was — 50° all dayand there 
was sometimes a light breeze which was inclined to frost- 
bite our faces and hands. Owing to the weight of our two 
sledges and the bad surface our pace was not more than 
a slow and very heavy plod: at our lunch camp Wilson 
had the heel and sole of one foot frost-bitten, and I had 
two big toes. Bowers was never worried by frost-bitten 
feet. 
That night was very cold, the temperature falling to 
— 66°, and it was — 55° at breakfast on June 30. We had 
not shipped the eider-down linings to our sleeping-bags, in 
order to keep them dry as long as possible. My own fur 
bag was too big for me, and throughout this journey was 
more difficult to thaw out than the other two: on the other 
hand, it never split, as did Bill’s. 
We were now getting into that cold bay which lies be- 
tween the Hut Point Peninsula and Terror Point. It was 
known from old Discovery days that the Barrier winds 
are deflected from this area, pouring out into McMurdo 
Sound behind us, and into the Ross Sea at Cape Crozier in 
front. In consequence of the lack of high winds the surface 
of the snow is never swept and hardened and polished as 
elsewhere : it was now a mass of the hardest and smallest 
snow crystals, to pull through which in cold temperatures 
was just like pulling through sand. I have spoken else- 
where of Barrier surfaces, and how, when the cold is very 
great, sledge runners cannot melt the crystal points but 
only advance by rolling them over and over upon one 
