THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



sleep. To-morrow I trust this will be over. Directly 

 the wind drops we march as far south as possible, then 

 plant the flag, and turn homeward. Our chief anxiety 

 is lest our tracks may drift up, for to them we must 

 trust mainly to find our depot ; we have no land bearings 

 in this great plain of snow. It is a serious risk that we 

 have taken, but we had to play the game to the utmost, 

 and Providence will look after us. 



January 8. — Again all day in our bags, suffering 

 considerably physically from cold hands and feet, and 

 from hunger, but more mentally, for we cannot get on 

 south, and we simply he here shivering. Every now and 

 then one of our party's feet go, and the unfortunate 

 beggar has to take his leg out of the sleeping-bag 

 and have his frozen foot nursed into life again by 

 placing it inside the shirt, against the skin of his almost 

 equally unfortunate neighbour. We must do something 

 more to the south, even though the food is going, and we 

 weaken lying in the cold, for with 72° of frost, the wind 

 cuts through our thin tent, and even the drift is 

 finding its way in and on to our bags, which are wet 

 enough as it is. Cramp is not uncommon every now 

 and then, and the drift all round the tent has made it 

 so small that there is hardly room for us at all. The wind 

 has been blowing hard all day; some of the gusts must be 

 over seventy or eighty miles an hour. This evening it 

 seems as though it were going to ease down, and directly 

 it does we shall be up and away south for a rush. I feel 

 that this march must be our limit. We are so short of 

 food, and at this high altitude, 11,600 ft., it is hard to 

 keep any warmth in our bodies between the scanty meals. 

 We have nothing to read now, having depoted our little 

 books to save weight, and it is dreary work lying in the 

 tent with nothing to read, and too cold to write much in 

 the diary. 



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