SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 
could liave managed six, though the Polar record of 
sixteen was I felt sure beyond my attainment. 
The movement of the Mackay Tongue was an 
interesting problem. The sea ice was puckered into 
great pressure ridges off Cape Geology by the irresistible 
outward movement of the glacier. Great diagonal cracks 
traversed the floe from the same reason. So I decided to 
try to fix a stake on the Tongue, and with the theodolite 
we could accurately fix its progress to the east. 
The chief difficulty was to get a mark. We had no 
wood to spare. Stones would sink into the ice. Finally 
I used the broken end of the signal pole. I tied some 
sealskin on the top for a flag, and painted it well with 
blubber soot, of which unlimited quantities coated Granite 
Hut. Gran and I walked over to the Tongue and marched 
200 yards up it quite easily. Then we suddenly came on 
many deep crevasses masked by snow round which we 
had to steer carefully. 
I sighted south with the theodolite to the tent on 
Cape Geology and north to a large crack in the granite of 
the Kar Plateau. These directions were not coUinear 
of course at first, but I moved the theodolite until they 
were. This took a long time and we had to go back to 
get round a crevasse before we got it fixed. Returning we 
had hard work to find a track and got lost amid the parallel 
crevasses, which had an awkward tendency to join after 
you had followed them for a few hundred yards. On 
our return I found it was an excellent station, the stake 
lying directly in line with the crack in the cliff 5 miles 
off across the bay. 
