JOURNEY TO BUTTER POINT 



the crack. This was the last journey of the car in the 

 Antarctic, for it was laid up when it got back to the hut. 



The Western Party, after some heavy sledging, 

 camped on December 4 at the foot of the Ferrar Glacier. 

 Armytagewas, at this time, suffering from an attack of 

 snow-blindness. Priestley found moss and a species of 

 fungus at the stranded moraines and also some kenyte. 

 The men had been looking forward with pleasurable 

 anticipation to securing skuas' eggs, which would have 

 been a welcome change from pemmican and biscuit, but 

 the birds had apparently not begun to lay and no 

 eggs were secured. " A good deal of water denudation 

 and transportation is taking place along the sea-clifFs of 

 these moraines," wrote Priestley in his diary. " Quite 

 a thick alluvial deposit, bearing a strong resemblance to 

 a series of miniature deltas, is to. be seen along the ice- 

 foot awaiting the breaking up of the ice and its 

 removal to the sea. The dust from the moraines had 

 made a remarkable surface for two miles this side of 

 them. Some winds had evidently been strong enough to 

 remove a considerable quantity of the gravel with the 

 snow, and the drifts which had contained this gravel had 

 melted away, undercutting the edges of the cleaner snow- 

 drifts, and thus giving a surface of bare ice with patchy 

 snowdrifts undercut on all sides." 



The party reached Butter Point, about thirty-five 

 miles as the crow flies from the winter quarters, on 

 December 5, and found a small depot left there by the 

 Northern Party on its way to the Magnetic Pole. Pro- 

 fessor David and his companions had placed some final 

 letters in a milk-tin. The stores brought for the pur- 

 pose were placed at the depot, and then Armytage, 

 Priestley and Brocklehurst proceeded back to the 

 winter quarters, arriving there on December 7 at 11.30 

 P.M. On December 9 they started for Butter Point 



37 



