PATIENCE CAMP 
that they were to return by midday the next day. Although 
they both fell through the thin ice up to their waists more 
than once, they managed to reach the camp. They found the 
surface soft and sunk about two feet. Ocean Camp, they said, 
looked like a village that had been razed to the ground and 
deserted by its inhabitants." The floor-boards forming the old 
tent-bottoms had prevented the sun from thawing the snow 
directly underneath them, and were in consequence raised about 
two feet above the level of the surroundhig floe. 
The storehouse next the galley had taken on a list of several 
degrees to starboard, and pools of water had formed everywhere. 
They collected what food they could find and paclced a 
few books in a venesta sledging-case, returning to Patience 
Camp by about 8 p.m. I was pleased at their quick return, 
and as their report seemed to show that the road was favourable, 
on February 2 I sent back eighteen men under Wild to bring 
all the remainder of the food and the third boat, the Stancomb 
Wills, They started off at 1 a.m., towing the empty boat- 
sledge on which the James Caird had rested, and reached 
Ocean Camp about 3.30 a.m. 
We stayed about three hours at the Camp, mounting the 
boat on the sledge, collecting eatables, clothing, and books. 
We left at 6 a.m., arriving back at Patience Camp with the 
boat at 12.30 p.m., taking exactly three times as long to return 
with the boat as it did to pull in the empty sledge to fetch it. 
On the return journey we had numerous halts while the pioneer 
party of four were busy breaking down pressure-ridges and 
filling in open cracks with ice-blocks, as the leads were opening 
up. The sun had softened the surface a good deal, and in 
places it was terribly hard pulling. Every one was a bit 
exhausted by the time we got back, as we are not now in good 
training and are on short rations. Every now and then the 
heavy sledge broke through the ice altogether and was practi- 
cally afloat. We had an awful job to extricate it, exhausted 
as we were. The longest distance which we managed to make 
without stoppmg for leads or pressure-ridges was about three- 
quarters of a mile. 
" About a mile from Patience Camp we had a welcome 
109 
