Chapter jiSftteteen 



FIRST DAYS OF THE SOUTHERN MARCH 



ri^HE events of the southern journey were recorded day 

 by day in the diary I wrote during the long march. 

 I read this diary when we had got back to civilisation, 

 and arrived at the conclusion that to rewrite it would 

 be to take away the special flavour which it possesses. 

 It was written under conditions of much difficulty, and 

 often of great stress, and these conditions I believe it 

 reflects. I am therefore publishing the diary with only 

 such minor amendments to the phraseology as were 

 necessary in order to make it easily understood. The 

 reader will understand that when one is writing in a 

 sleeping-bag, with the temperature very low and food 

 rather short, a good proportion of the " of 's," " and's " 

 and " the's " get left out. The story will probably 

 seem bold, but it is at any rate a faithful record of what 

 occurred. I will deal more fully with some aspects of 

 the journey in a later chapter. The altitudes given in 

 the diary were calculated at the time, and were not always 

 accurate. The corrected altitudes are given on the map 

 and in a table at the end of the book. The distances 

 were calculated by means of a sledge-meter, checked 

 by observations of the sun, and are approximately 

 accurate. 



October 29, 1908. — : A glorious day for our start; bril- 

 liant sunshine and a cloudless sky, a fair wind from the 

 north, in fact, everything that could conduce to an 

 auspicious beginning. We had breakfast at 7 a.m., 

 and at 8.30 the sledges that the motor was to haul to 



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