THE BOAT JOURNEY 
plains, glaciers, and peaks of the interior. Worsley and Crean 
were coming with me, and after consultation we decided to leave 
the sleeping-bags behind us and make the journey in very 
light marching order. We would take three days' provisions 
for each man in the form of sledging ration and biscuit. The 
food was to be packed in three socks, so that each member of 
the party could carry his own supply. Then we were to take 
the Primus lamp filled with oil, the small cooker, the carpenter's 
adze (for use as an ice-axe), and the alpine rope, which made 
a total length of fifty feet when knotted. We might have to 
lower ourselves down steep slopes or cross crevassed glaciers. 
The filled lamp would provide six hot meals, which would 
consist of sledging ration boiled up with biscuit. There were 
two boxes of matches left, one full and the other partially used. 
We left the full box with the men at the camp and took the 
second box, which contained forty-eight matches. I was unfor- 
tunate as regarded footgear, since I had given away my heavy 
Burberry boots on the floe, and had now a comparatively light 
pair in poor condition. The carpenter assisted me by putting 
several screws in the sole of each boot with the object of 
providing a grip on the ice. The screws came out of the James 
Caird. 
We turned in early that night, but sleep did not come to 
me. My nmid was busy with the task of the following day. 
The weather was clear and the outlook for an early start 
in the morning was good. We were going to leave a weak 
party behind us in the camp. Vincent was still in the same 
condition, and he could not march. McNeish was pretty well 
broken up. The two men were not capable of managing for 
themselves and McCarthy must stay to look after them. He 
might have a difficult task if we failed to reach the whaling- 
station. The distance to Husvik, according to the chart, was 
no more than seventeen geographical miles in a direct line, but we 
had very scanty knowledge of the conditions of the interior. No 
man had ever penetrated a mile from the coast of South Georgia 
at any point, and the whalers I knew regarded the country as 
inaccessible. During that day, while we were walking to the 
snouted glacier, we had seen three wild duck flying towards 
N 193 
