PRELIMINARY WORK 



about 250 lb., carried personal gear which we might 

 have to use on the depot la^^ing trip in the event of 

 being surprised by a blizzard. At first Day travelled 

 on his fii'st gear; he then found that the engine became 

 heated, and we had to stop for it to cool down. He 

 discovered while we were waiting that one of the cylinders 

 was not firing. This he soon fixed up all right. He 

 then remounted the car and he put her on to the 

 second gear. With the increased power given by the 

 repaired cylinder we now sped over the floe-ice at 

 fourteen miles an hour, much to the admiration of the 

 seals and penguins. When, however, we had travelled 

 about ten miles from winter quarters, and were some 

 five miles westerly from Tent Island, we encountered 

 numerous sastrugi of softish snow, the car continually 

 sticking fast in the ridges. A little low drift was 

 flymg over the ice surface, brought up by a gentle 

 blizzard. We left the hesLvy sledge ten miles out, and 

 then with only the light sledge to draw behind us. Day 

 found that he was able to travel on Ms third gear at 

 eighteen miles an hour. At this speed the sledge, 

 whenever it took one of the snow sastrugi at right angles, 

 leapt into the air like a flying fish and came down with 

 a bump on the surface of the ice. As we had occasionally 

 to make sharp turns in order to avoid sastrugi and 

 lumps of ice, our sledge had one or two capsizes. Mean- 

 wliile, the blizzard was freshening, and we tore along 

 in hopes of reaching our winter quarters before it 

 became very violent. We had just reached Flagstaff 

 Point, and were taking a turn in towards the shore 

 opposite the penguin rookery when the blizzard wind 

 caught the side of the sledge nearly broadside on, and 

 capsized it heavily. So violent was the shock that the 

 aluminium cooking apparatus was knocked out of 



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