70 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[August 
farther out all the way on this our return journey than 
on our outward journey, so it differed rather from the 
surface we had then. 
After leaving Hut Point we had very rough, rubbly 
sea ice with no snow worth mentioning for two or three 
miles. What indications there were of wind came from 
the land and showed north-easterly winds off shore. 
Their direction, however, very gradually altered till we 
were crossing them exactly at right angles, indicating due 
easterly winds from the ridge. Later still and farther on 
towards the Glacier Tongue and Cape Evans the indications 
gradually turned to show south-easterly winds. These 
are the winds which seem chiefly to affect the surface of 
the strait ice during the winter, and as we got on towards 
the Glacier Tongue the snow-covering became increasingly 
greater, as well as the evidence of stronger easterly winds. 
Extensive flatly rounded, hard-surfaced drifts became 
more abundant and afforded excellent going, so that 
when we were about 6 miles from Hut Point we were 
doing about 2 miles an hour. After this, and especially 
during the 8th mile from Hut Point, we met with a lot 
of hummocky cracks where the ice had been pressed 
up into long ridges and subsequently had been drifted 
up, forming very difficult sastrugi and providing much 
trouble for a sledge. We still had sufficient daylight, 
and after lunch, moonlight, to negotiate these, though 
it was easy to see how much trouble they might give 
one in the dark, as they did on our way out. 
All the day we were watching the changes in some 
iridescent clouds which hung low on the northern horizon. 
