SOUTHERN PARTY OVERDUE 



the other party missing the food depot. We knew 

 that they would be run out of provisions, as they were 

 then eleven days overdue, and the position caused us 

 great anxiety. After we had laid the flags, three miles 

 and a half apart, with directions where to find the 

 depot, we decided to march due south to look for the 

 Southern Party. At every rest we would get on the 

 sledge with the glasses, and look around, thinking that 

 each snow hummock was a man or a tent. On the 

 13th Day sighted some marks in the snow that looked 

 unusual, and on examination we found them to be the 

 hoof -prints of the ponies, evidently made on the outward 

 march of the Southern Party three months before. 

 The tracks of the four sledges showed distinctly. We 

 followed these tracks for seven hours, and then we lost 

 them. We camped that night at 10 p.m.^ and early 

 the next morning proceeded south again, thinking all 

 the time that we would see something appear out of 

 the loneliness. It is curious what things one can see 

 in circumstances like these, especially with a bad Hght. 

 We started back to the depot with all sorts of fears for 

 the Southern Party." 



They reached the depot again at noon on the 16th, 

 and Joyce states that as they approached the mound 

 they were all sure that they could see a tent up and 

 men walking about. When they got close, however, 

 they found that everything was just as they had left 

 it. They put all the provisions on top of the mound, 

 lashed everything securely, and examined the flags 

 to the eastward, and started on the march back to the 

 coast, full of gloomy thoughts as to the fate of the 

 Southern Party, which was now eighteen days overdue. 



They proceeded first to the old Discovery depot 

 found on the first journey, Joyce wishing to take some 

 measurements in order to ascertain the movement of 



57 



