THE MARCH BETWEEN 
up the rear. Were it not for these cumbrous boats we should 
get along at a great rate, but we dare not abandon them on 
any account. As it is we left one boat, the Stancomb Wills, 
behind at Ocean Camp, and the remaining two will barely 
accommodate the whole party when we leave the floe. 
We did a good march of one and a half miles that night 
before we halted for " lunch " at 1 a.m., and then on for 
another mile, when at 5 a.m. we camped by a little sloping 
berg. 
Blackie, one of Wild's dogs, fell lame and could neither 
pull nor keep up with the party even when relieved of his 
harness, so had to be shot. 
Nine p.m. that night, the 27th, saw us on the march again. 
The first 200 yds. took us about five hours to cross, owing to 
the amount of breaking down of pressure-ridges and filling in 
of leads that was required. The surface, too, was now very 
soft, so our progress was slow and tiring. We managed to get 
another three-quarters of a mile before lunch, and a further 
mile due west over a very hummocky floe before we camped 
at 5.30 a.m. Greenstreet and Macklin killed and brought in a 
huge Weddell seal weighing about 800 lb., and two emperor 
penguins made a welcome addition to our larder. 
I climbed a small tilted berg near by. The country imme- 
diately ahead was much broken up. Great open leads inter- 
sected the floes at all angles, and it all looked very unpromising. 
Wild and I went out prospecting as usual, but it seemed too 
broken to travel over. 
December 29. — ^After a further reconnaissance the ice 
ahead proved quite unnegotiable, so at 8.30 p.m. last night, 
to the intense disappointment of all, instead of forging ahead, 
we had to retire half a mile so as to get on a stronger floe, and 
by 10 p.m. we had camped and all hands turned in again. The 
extra sleep was much needed, however disheartening the check 
may be.'' 
During the night a crack formed right across the floe, so 
we hurriedly shifted to a strong old floe about a mile and a 
half to the east of our present position. The ice all around 
us was now too broken and soft to sledge over, and yet there 
105 
