THE DEPOT REACHED 



ducing him to give us an extra ration of food, I mildly 

 informed him that it was my birthday. He took the 

 hint and we all fared sumptuously at lunch and dinner 

 that day. The day's run was twenty miles. It had 

 been one of the most fatiguing days that we had as yet 

 experienced, and we were all utterly exhausted when we 

 turned into our sleeping-bag at 8.30 p.m. 



January 29.— We were up at about 8 a.m., and found 

 that the plateau wind was still blowing at a speed of 

 about fifteen miles an hour. After our experience of 

 the preceding day we decided that we would not make 

 sail on the sledge, and as a matter of fact, found that 

 pulling the sledge in the ordinary way was far less 

 wearying than the sailing had proved the preceding 

 day. We pulled on steadily hour after hour, and 

 Mounts Nansen and Larsen grew every moment clearer 

 and larger, and we began to hope that we might be able 

 to reach our depot at Mount Larsen that night. After 

 we had sledged about ten miles, descending at a gentle 

 grade all the way, we found that there was a slight 

 up grade in the snow surface towards the foot of Mount 

 Larsen, but it was not steep enough to cause us any 

 trouble. But later in the day Mawson's sprained leg 

 caused him a good deal of pain, and we had almost de- 

 cided to camp at a point nearly twenty miles from our 

 preceding camp, when Mackay's sharp eyes sighted, at 

 a distance of about a mile, our little blue flag, tied to 

 the ice-axe at our depot. We soon reached the depot, 

 fixed up the tent, had a good hoosh, and turned into the 

 sleeping-bag past midnight. 



We were up at 9 a.m. on January 30. The day was 

 sunny, but ominous clouds were gathering overhead as 

 well as to the south. After breakfast we collected the 

 material at our depot, chiefly ski-boots, ice-axes, oil, 

 a little food, and geological specimens, and loaded these 



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