THE WINTER JOURNEY 295 



and thus got rid of a lot of moisture which came out as 

 snow or actual knobs of ice. When we did turn our bags 

 the only way was to do so directly we turned out, and even 

 then you had to be quick before the bag froze. Getting out 

 of the tent at night it was quite a race to get back to your 

 bag before it hardened. Of course this was in the lowest 

 temperatures. 



We could not burn our bags and we tried putting the 

 lighted primus into them to thaw them out, but this was 

 not very successful. Before this time, when it was very 

 cold, we lighted the primus in the morning while we were 

 still in our bags : and in the evening we kept it going 

 until we were just getting or had got the mouths of our 

 bags levered open. But returning we had no oil for such 

 luxuries, until the last day or two. 



I do not believe that any man, however sick he is, has 

 a much worse time than we had in those bags, shaking with 

 cold until our backs would almost break. One of the added 

 troubles which came to us on our return was the sodden 

 condition of our hands in our bags at night. We had to 

 wear our mitts and half-mitts, and they were as wet as they 

 could be : when we got up in the morning we had washer- 

 women's hands — white, crinkled, sodden. That was an un- 

 healthy way to start the day's work. We really wanted 

 some bags of saennegrass for hands as well as feet ; one of 

 the blessings of that kind of bag being that you can shake 

 the moisture from it : but we only had enough for our 

 wretched feet. 



The horrors of that return journey are blurred to my 

 memory and I know they were blurred to my body at the 

 time. I think this applies to all of us, for we were much 

 weakened and callous. The day we got down to the pen- 

 guins I had not cared whether I fell into a crevasse or not. 

 We had been through a great deal since then. I know that 

 we slept on the march ; for I woke up when I bumped 

 against Birdie, and Birdie woke when he bumped against 

 me. I think Bill steering out in front managed to keep 

 awake. I know we fell asleep if we waited in the compara- 

 tively warm tent when the primus was alight — with our 



