PROFESSOR DAVID'S NARRATIVE (Continued) 



Coldly thy rosy shadows bathe me^ cold 



Are all thy lights, and cold my wrinkled feet. 



Tennyson. 



T CALLED the camp at a little before 10 a.m. the fol- 

 lowing morning. We now discussed the situation and 

 our chances of catching the Nimrodj if she came in search 

 of us along the coast in the direction of our depot on the 

 Drygalski Glacier. We had agreed, before we decided to 

 do the extra four days' march to the shifted position 

 of the Magnetic Pole, that on our return journey we 

 would do not less than thirteen miles a day. At the 

 Magnetic Pole we were fully 260 statute miles distant, 

 as the skua flies, from our depot on the Drygalski Glacier. 

 As we had returned eleven of these miles on the day 

 previous we still had 249 miles to cover. It was now 

 January 17, and the Nimrod was due to start to search 

 for us on February 1. As there was of course plenty of 

 sunlight day and night, we thought it quite possible 

 that she might be up to the Drygalski Glacier on February 

 2 — possibly on the morning of that day. We accord- 

 ingly decided to try and make back to our Drygalski 

 depot by February 1. This gave us fifteen days. Con- 

 sequently we would have to average sixteen and two- 

 thirds miles a day in order to reach the coast in the time 

 specified. This of course did not allow of any delay 

 on account of blizzards, and we had seen from the 

 evidence of the large sastrugi that blizzards of great 



183 



