THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



every few minutes. Owing to the slippery nature of 

 the ground, some members of the party who had not 

 crampons or barred ski-boots were badly shaken up, 

 for they sustained innumerable sudden falls. One has 

 to experience a surface like this to realise how severe 

 a jar a fall entails. The only civilised experience that 

 is akin to it is when one steps unknowingly on a slide 

 which some small street boy has made on the pavement. 

 Marshall devised the best means of assisting the pro- 

 gress of the sledge. When it took charge he jumped 

 on behind and steered it with his legs as it bumped 

 and jolted over the sastrugi, but he found sometimes 

 that his thirteen-stone weight did not prevent him from 

 being bucked right over the sledge and flung on the neve 

 on the other side. 



They reached the nunatak where they had made 

 their first camp on the way up, six miles distant from 

 Cape Royds, at about 7.30 a.m. By this time there 

 was every symptom of the approach of a blizzard, 

 and the snow was beginning to drift before a gusty 

 south-easterly wind. This threatened soon to cut them 

 off from all view of the winter quarters. They were 

 beginning to feel very tired, one of the tents had a large 

 hole burnt in it, the oil-supply was almost done, and 

 one of the primus stoves had been put out of* action 

 as the result of the glissade; so, in the circumstances, 

 they decided to make a dash for Cape Royds, leaving 

 their sledge and equipment to be picked up later. In 

 the grey uncertain light the sastrugi did not show up 

 in relief, and every few feet some member of the party 

 stumbled and fell, sprawling over the snow. At last 

 their eyes were gladdened by the shining surface of the 

 Blue Lake only half a mile distant from winter quarters. 

 Now that the haven was at hand, and the stress and 

 strain over, their legs grew heavy and leaden, and 



188 



