PATIENCE CAMP 
" The temperature was not strikmgly low as temperatures 
go down here, but the terrific winds penetrate the flimsy fabric 
of our fragile tents and create so much draught that it is impos- 
sible to keep warm within. At supper last night our drinking- 
water froze over in the tin in the tent before we could drink it. 
It is curious how thirsty we all are." 
Two days of brilliant warm sunshine succeeded these cold 
times, and on March 29 we experienced, to us, the most amazing 
weather. It began to rain hard, and it was the first rain that 
we had seen since we left South Georgia sixteen months ago. 
We regarded it as our first touch with civilization, and many 
of the men longed for the rain and fogs of London. 
Strong south winds with dull, overcast skies and occasional 
high temperatures were now our lot till April 7, when the mist 
lifted and we could make out what appeared to be land to 
the north. 
Although the general drift of our ice-floe had indicated to 
us that we must eventually drift north, our progress in that 
direction was not by any means uninterrupted. We were at 
the mercy of the wind, and could no more control our drift 
than we could control the weather. 
A long spell of calm, still weather at the begmning of January 
caused us some anxiety by keepmg us at about the latitude that 
we were in at the beginning of December. Towards the end of 
January, however, a long drift of eighty-four miles in a blizzard 
cheered us all up. This soon stopped and we began a slight 
drift to the east. Our general drift now slowed up considerably, 
and by February 22 we were still eighty miles from Paulet Island' 
which now was our objective. There was a hut there and 
some stores which had been taken down by the ship which 
went to the rescue of Nordenskj old's Expedition in 1904, 
and whose fitting out and equipment I had charge of. We 
remarked amongst ourselves what a strange turn of fate it 
would be if the very cases of provisions which I had ordered 
and sent out so many years before were now to support us 
during the coming winter. But this was not to be. March 5 
found us about forty miles south of the longitude of Paulet Island, 
but well to the east of it ; and as the ice was still too much 
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