THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



A second load of stores was secured from the depot, 

 including some luxuries, such as apples and fresh 

 mutton, brought by a party from the ship, and on 

 February 2 the party started south again. Joyce 

 decided to take a new course in order to avoid the 

 crevasses. He kept a course towards Cape Crozier 

 for two days, and then marched south on the 5th and 

 reached the depot without having seen any crevasses 

 at all. I think that the crevasses run right across to 

 Cape Crozier from the district around White Island, 

 but they are evidently more snow covered along the 

 outer course. When the party was close to the depot 

 a blizzard came up from the south, and there was just 

 time to get the tents up before the drift became thick. 

 The tents were completely snowed up before the weather 

 cleared, and the men had some difficulty in getting out 

 again. The dogs were covered, but they seemed to 

 be quite happy in their " nests " deep in the drift. 

 When dogs and sledge had been dug out the party started 

 again, and at 2 a.m. on the 8th they reached the Bluff 

 depot for the second time. 



" We expected to find the Southern Party camped 

 there, and to surprise them with the luxuries we had 

 brought out for them," wrote Joyce in his report, " but 

 they were not there. As our orders were to return on 

 the 10th if the Southern Party did not turn up, we 

 began to feel rather uneasy. It came on to blow again 

 from the south, and presently the wind turned into a 

 howling blizzard, and did not ease down until the 11th. 

 During every lull we climbed the depot and looked 

 round the horizon with the glasses, expecting every 

 minute to see the Southern Party loom up out of the 

 whiteness, but they did not appear. On the 11th, 

 after a consultation, we decided to lay depot flags in 

 towards the Bluff, so that there would be no chance of 



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