6 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[June 
crusty rough sea ice, salt to the taste still ; or it had an 
inch or two of white crusty snow on the rough, darker 
sea ice, alternating with broader drifts of hard wind- 
swept snow, making long, low mounds over which the 
sledges ran easily. These seemed here to result from an 
E.N.E. wind coming from the neck on the promontory, 
the wind which we caught just after passing the Glacier 
Tongue, and again off the ridge along Castle Rock, where 
it blew to force 5, up to 8 p.m., when we camped for the 
night, having made 9I miles from Cape Evans. [Setting 
this tent in dark is difficult, but not too bad even 
in that wind. Bill warns me seriously against running 
risk of frostbite. I find no specs, very hard in setting 
tent — must be sure not to let any inability arising from 
this get on my nerves — 41 more days we hope.] Castle 
Rock was here nearly abeam. The wind dropped soon 
after and we had a clear starlit night. 
The temperature for the day ranged from - I4"5° to 
-15°, and the minimum temperature for the night was 
Wednesday, June 28, 191 1,— Turned out at 7.30 a.m. 
The going became very heavy with the two sledges, and 
we made very little more than a mile an hour over a sur- 
face which was all rough, rubbly salt sea ice with no snow 
on it. Bowers thinks that we were on definitely younger 
ice than that which we were on farther out yesterday 
and on our return. He thinks there was a large open 
lead along the shore which was the last to freeze up, and 
that this resulted from off-shore winds. 
We reached Hut Point at 1.30 p.m., having crossed 
