ACCIDENT TO DAY 



the repairs had been completed, Day and Armytage 

 went out for a httle tobogganing before dinner. Late in 

 the evening Armytage returned dragging slowly and 

 painfully a sledge bearing the recumbent, though not 

 inanimate form of Day. We crowded round to inquire 

 what was the matter, and found that just when Armytage 

 and Day were urging their wild career down a steep 

 snow slope Day's foot had struck an unyielding block of 

 kenyte lava, and the consequence had been very awkward 

 for the foot. It was severely staved, so that he was quite 

 unable to walk without assistance. As no one but Day 

 could be trusted to drive the motor-car, this accident 

 necessitated a further postponement of the laying of our 

 second depot. 



On September 28 it was blowing. On the 29th the 

 day was fairly fine, but Day's foot was not well enough 

 for him to start in the motor-car. 



On September 30 a mild blizzard commenced blowing, 

 and on October 1, the day on which Lieutenant Shackle- 

 ton had intended that we should start, it was still 

 raging with increased force. That day was spent 

 chiefly in nailing strips of tin, painted blue, on all 

 the geological specimen boxes, and double-labelling 

 them. 



On October 2 the weather was still bad, so that we 

 were unable to start. On October 3, the weather having 

 cleared, Day, Priestley, Mackay and I started with two 

 sledges to lay our second depot. All went well for 

 about eight miles out, then the carburetter played up. 

 Possibly there was some dirt in the nozzle. Day took 

 it all to pieces in the cold wind, and spent three-quarters 

 of an hour in fixing it up. We then started off again 

 gaily in good style. We crossed a large crack in the 

 sea ice where there were numbers of seals and Emperor 



79 



