ON DRIFT ICE 



with one sledge, a tent, sleeping-bags, cooking equip- 

 ment and a supply of provisions. The distance to be 

 covered was about twenty-five miles. In the afternoon 

 Mackintosh sent Riches and Paton back to the ship, and 

 he reduced the load on the sledge by leaving fifty pounds 

 of provisions in a depot. The travelling became very 

 rough, the two men encountering both bad ice and 

 soft snow. They camped at 7.50 p.m., and started for 

 Cape Royds again at 1.55 a.m. on the following day. 

 They soon got on to a better surface, and made good 

 progress until 5.30 a.m., when they met with open water, 

 with pressure ice floating past. This blocked the way. 

 They walked for two hours in a westerly direction to 

 see how far the open water extended, but did not reach 

 the end of it. The whole of the ice to the southward 

 seemed to be moving, and the stream at the spot at which 

 they were then standing was travelling at the rate of 

 about three miles an hour. They breakfasted at 

 7.30 A.M., and then started back for the ship, as there 

 seemed to be no chance of reaching Cape Royds in con- 

 sequence of the open water. 



Presently Mackintosh found that there was open 

 water ahead, blocking the way to the ship, and a survey 

 of the position from a hummock revealed the unpleasant 

 fact that the floe-ice was breaking up altogether, and 

 that they were in most serious danger of drifting out 

 into the sound. Safety lay in a hurried dash for the 

 shore to the east, and they proceeded to drag their 

 sledge across rough ice and deep snow with all possible 

 speed. At places they had to lift the sledge bodily 

 over the ice-faces, and when, after an hour's very heavy 

 work, they arrived off the first point of land, they found 

 an open lane of water barring their way. " We dragged 

 on to the next point, which appeared to be safe," wrote 

 Mackintosh in his diary. *' The floes were small and 



43 



