76 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[August 
the mouth of our bags levered open in the evening. We 
also tried getting the primus into our bags to thaw them 
outj but it was not very successful. Cooking coming back 
was a much longer process, since we had to hold the 
cooker up, having lost its proper stand and the top of the 
outer cooker — though Birdie's substitute was very good. 
After breakfast we would be pretty warm, and having 
loaded the sledge the next job was to get a bearing on 
to some star or the moon if anything was visible. This 
meant lighting matches, always a big business. To 
light the candle in the tent we used sometimes to have 
to try three or even four boxes before one would light. 
Steering was very haphazard generally. 
Then into our harness — and then four hours' march 
or relaying, if possible. The possibility depended on 
whether our feet got too cold, but the difficulty was to 
know when they were frostbitten. 
Relaying was at first by naked candle — later by 
hurricane lamp — following back our tracks in the snow 
for the second sledge. We never could decide which 
was the heavier. We camped for lunch if possible before 
we got too cold, since this was always a cold job. 
We cooked alternately day by day. The worst part 
was lighting up. The weekly bag was very cold to handle. 
Generally (often) we had to take off our finnesko or one 
of them to examine our feet and nurse them back if 
they were gone. 
Then four hours' march more if possible. 
Footgear on as soon as possible on camping. Our 
night footgear was very good. 
