THE HEART OP THE ANTARCTIC 



delay. We started sledging in the thick driving snow Oil 

 the evening of February 1. The surface was covered 

 with a layer of soft snow, nine inches in thickness, but 

 in the drifts it was, of course, deeper* The work of 

 sledging under these circumstances was excessively 

 laborious and exhausting, and besides it was impossible 

 to keep our proper course while the blizzard lasted. 

 Acoordingly, we camped at 8 p.m., and after our evening 

 meal we rolled into our sleeping-bag and slid into the 

 dreamless sleep that comes to the worn and weary 

 wanderer. 



At 8 A.M. on February 2 we were rejoiced to find the 

 sun shining in a clear sky. We intended making a 

 desperate attempt this day to reach our depot, as we 

 knew that the Nimrod would be due — ^perhaps overdue 

 — ^by the night. We saw as we looked back that our 

 track of yesterday was about as straight as a corkscrew. 

 Once more we pulled out over the soft snow, and 

 although refreshed somewhat by our good sleep we 

 found the work extremely trying and toilsome. We 

 crossed an ice donga, and about four miles out 

 reached the edge of a second donga. Here we decided 

 to leave everything but our sledge, tent, sleeping-bag, 

 cooking-apparatus, oil and food, and make a forced 

 march right on to the Drygalski Depot. Accordingly 

 we camped, had tea and two biscuits each, and fixed 

 up our depot, including the Lloyd- Creak dip circle, 

 theodolite and legs, geological collections, &c., and 

 marked the spot with a Mttle blue flag tied on to an 

 ice-axe. 



We now found the sledge, thus lightened, distinctly 

 easier to pull, and after making a slight detour, crossed 

 the donga by a snow bridge. Soon we reached another 

 donga, and successfully crossed it. At three and a half 

 miles further at 8 p.m. we camped again and had 



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