RAPID MARCHING 



cient food. This proposal was, of course, hailed with 

 delight. 



On January 21 there was a light wind with low 

 temperature, clear sky and hot sun, which combined 

 to consolidate the surface over wliich we were sledging. 

 By this time Mackay and Mawson's raw lips, which had 

 been cracked and bleeding for about a fortnight pre- 

 viously, were now much better. Mawson's lame leg 

 had also improved. Again we did our sixteen-mile 

 run. 



January 22. — We were up soon after 7 a.m. It 

 was a clear day with bright sunshine. The wind started 

 soon after 5 a.m., constantly freshening, as it usually 

 did in this part of the plateau, till about 3 p.m. Then 

 it gradually died down by about 10 p.m. The tempera- 

 ture at 7.15 A.M. was minus 20° Fahr., and at this altitude 

 we found the wind at this temperature very trying. 

 To-day we had to sledge over a great deal of pie-crust 

 snow, which was very fatiguing. Again we did sixteen 

 miles. We had since the day before yesterday lost our 

 old sledge tracks. Mackay earned a pound of tobacco, 

 to be given him when we returned to civilisation, by being 

 the first to make the " land fall " — new mountain, west of 

 Mount New Zealand — which showed out now in the far 

 distance very faintly a little to the left of our course. It 

 was a welcome sight to all of us. To-day we sledged 

 fifteen miles. 



January 23. — The weather was bright and cold 

 with a light southerly wind. This day was very 

 fatiguing, the sledging being over patches of soft snow 

 and pie-crust snow. At the same time we were con- 

 scious now that although we were sledging up and 

 down wide undulations we were on the whole going 

 down hill, and the new mountain was already showing 

 up as an impressive massif. The air was cold and 



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