MARSHALL'S CONDITION WORSE 



dysentery increasing, and he got worse in the after- 

 noon, after lunch. At 4 p.m. I decided to pitch camp, 

 leave Marshall under Adams' charge, and push ahead 

 with Wild, taking one day's provisions and leaving the 

 balance for the two men at the camp. I hoped to pick 

 up a relief party at the ship. We dumped everything 

 off the sledge except a prismatic compass, our sleeping- 

 bags and food for one day, and at 4.30 p.m. Wild and 

 I started, and marched till 9 p.m. Then we had a hoosh, 

 and marched until 2 a.m. of the 28th, over a very hard 

 surface. We stopped for one hour and a half off the 

 north-east end of White Island, getting no sleep, and 

 marched till 11 a.m., by which time our food was 

 finished. We kept flashing the heliograph in the hope 

 of attracting attention from Observation Hill, where I 

 thought that a party would be on the look-out, but there 

 was no return flash. The only thing to do was to 

 push ahead, although we were by this time very tired. 

 At 2.30 p.m. we sighted open water ahead, the ice having 

 evidently broken out four miles south of Cape Armitage, 

 and an hour and a half later a blizzard wind started 

 to blow, and the weather got very thick. We thought 

 once that we saw a party coming over to meet us, and 

 our sledge seemed to grow lighter for a few minutes, 

 but the " party " turned out to be a group of penguins 

 at the ice-edge. The weather was so thick that we 

 could not see any distance ahead, and we arrived at 

 the ice edge suddenly. The ice was swaying up and 

 down, and there was grave risk of our being carried 

 out. I decided to abandon the sledge, as I felt sure 

 that we would get assistance at once when we reached 

 the hut, and time was becoming important. It was 

 necessary that we should get food and shelter speedily. 

 Wild's feet were giving him a great deal of trouble. In 

 the thick weather we could not risk making Pram 



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