SOUTH 
Hudson, and myself, carrying picks and shovels, started to 
break a road through the pressure-ridges for the sledges carrying 
the boats. The boats, with their gear and the sledges beneath 
them, weighed each more than a ton. The cutter was smaller 
than the whaler, but weighed more and was a much more 
strongly built boat. The whaler was mounted on the sledge 
part of the Girling tractor forward and two sledges amidships 
and aft. These sledges were strengthened with cross-timbers 
and shortened oars fore and aft. The cutter was mounted on 
the aero-sledge. The sledges Avere the point of weakness. It 
appeared almost hopeless to prevent them smashing under 
their heavy loads when travelling over rough pressure-ice 
which stretched ahead of us for probably 300 miles. After 
the pioneer sledge had staxted the seven dog teams got off. 
They took their sledges forward for half a mile, then went 
back for the other sledges. Worsley took charge of the two 
boats, with fifteen men hauling, and these also had to be relayed. 
It was heavy work for dogs and men. but there were intervals 
of comparative rest on the backward journey, after the first 
portion of the load had been taken forward. We passed over 
two opening cracks, through which killers were pushing their 
ugly snouts, and by 5 p.m. had covered a mile in a north-north- 
westerly direction. The condition of the ice ahead was chaotic, 
for since the morning increased pressure had developed and 
the pack was moving and crushing in all directions. So I gave 
the order to pitch camp for the night on flat ice, which, unfor- 
tunately, proved to be young and salty. The older pack was 
too rough and too deeply laden with snow to offer a suitable 
camping-ground. Although we had gained only one mile in a 
direct line, the necessary deviations made the distance travelled 
at least two miles, and the relays brought the distance marched 
up to six miles. Some of the dog teams had covered at least 
ten miles. I set the watch from 6 p.m. to 7 a.m., one hour for 
each man in each tent in rotation. 
During the night snow fell heavily, and the floor-cloths of 
the tents g-ot wet through, as the temperature had risen to 
+ 25° Fahr. One of the things we hoped for in those days 
was a temperature in the neighbourhood of zero, for then the 
84 
