THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



rent had been torn in the material by the corner of a 

 biscuit-tin. He added that it was impossible to keep 

 any snow on the skirt of the tent, and that, as the snow- 

 cloth was kept down only by a few rocks, the occupants 

 of the tent were in constant expectation of seeing the 

 tent leave them altogether. When Joyce left me on 

 this occasion the drift was so thick that he could see 

 nothing, and had to fold his way back by shouting 

 and listening for the return shouts of his tent-mates. He 

 had gone only a quarter of the distance when both his 

 eyes were filled with drift and immediately choked with 

 ice, and when he reached the tent his face was a mask 

 of ice and both feet were frost-bitten. He was helped 

 inside and his feet brought round with rubbing, but no 

 further attempt could be made to reach me. He had 

 brought me some biscuit and raw pemmican. Cooking 

 was not possible in the tent owing to the impossibility 

 of reaching the sledge to get the oil-filler. It may sound 

 like an exaggeration to say that we could not reach the 

 sledge, which was four yards or less from the tent, but 

 it must be remembered that we were lying on the 

 slopes of a clean-swept glacier, on which finnesko could 

 get no hold. The snow that had covered the ice when 

 we pitched camp had all disappeared before the fury of 

 the blizzard. Our spiked ski-boots were on the ice- 

 axes round the sledge, where they had been hung to 

 dry, but in any case it would have been impossible 

 to wear them in a blizzard when feet were getting badly 

 frost-bitten even in finnesko. A slip on the ice meant 

 very serious danger of destruction. 



" A slight decrease in the wind at the close of the 

 third day gave me hope of getting up to the tent, and 

 I prepared to move by putting on my outdoor clothing, 

 no easy task in a sleeping-bag; then, rolling over on 

 my side, I tried to get out. I found that there was 



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