252 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION Pecember 
This slush — half ice, half snow — was much riskier 
than broken floe, for there was nothing to grip, and I think 
Forde voiced our opinions when he said : ' You done a 
wise thing to give that place a miss ! ' Gran and I were 
pretty chilled when we reached our tent, but soon got 
warm in our bags and slept off any ill effects. 
We had an even more difficult time returning. My 
diary records it as ' hellish.' We managed the two miles 
with the light sledge in four hours, during which we 
experienced an interesting anatomical phenomenon — as 
if our insides were getting driven out of our backs by the 
drag of the harness ! 
Next day by evening we reached Camp Geology again. 
Everything was buried in snow. A tin of biscuits weighing 
40 lbs. had been blown six feet off a rock. Granite Hut 
was half filled with snow and we later found that our flag- 
pole on the bluff, although of male bamboo two inches 
thick, was broken into a dozen strands. 
December 10 was a Sunday, and we registered our 
highest temperature of + 40°. We expected the warmest 
day early in January, but it rarely rose above freezing 
point any more that summer. In the evening Gran and I 
planted his sea-kale seeds on a patch of mossy soil inside a 
granite hollow. It seemed a bit wet, but Gran assured 
us it would be up in a week and eatable in a month ! Our 
mouths watered at the thouglit of cabbages, though I 
don't think we others were optimistic. 
The ship was due to pick us up in about a month to take 
us 200 miles north to Terra Nova Bay, and so of course we 
thought of a sweepstake as to its date of arrival. Unfortu- 
