THE ROSS SEA PARTY 
held the men up on February 13, and they had an uncomfortable 
time in their sleeping-bags owing to low temperature. 
During succeeding days the party plodded forward. They 
were able to cover from five to twelve miles a day, according 
to the surface and weather. They built the cairns regidarly 
and checked their route by taking bearings of the mountains 
to the west. They were able to cover from five to twelve miles 
a day, the dogs pvilHng fairly well. They reached lat. 80° S. 
on the afternoon of February 20. Mackintosh had hoped to 
find a depot laid in that neighbom-hood by Captain Scott, but 
no trace of it was seen. The surface had been very rough 
during the afternoon, and for that reason the depot to be laid 
there was named Rocky Mountain Depot. The stores were 
to be placed on a substantial cairn, and smaller cairns were 
to be built at right angles to the depot as a guide to the overland 
party. " As soon as breakfast was over," wrote Mackintosh 
the next day, Joyce and Wild went off with a light sledge 
and the dogs to lay out the cairns and place flags to the east- 
ward, building them at every mile. The outer cairn had a 
large flag and a note indicating the position of the depot. I 
remained behind to get angles and fix our position with the 
theodolite. The temperature was very low this morning, and 
handling the theodolite was not too warm a job for the fingers. 
My whiskers froze to the metal while I was taking a sight. 
After five hours the others arrived back. They had covered 
ten miles, five miles out and five miles back. During the 
afternoon we finished the cairn, which we have built to a height 
of eight feet. It is a solid square erection which ought to stand 
a good deal of weathering, and on top we have placed a bamboo 
pole with a flag, making the total height twenty-five feet. 
Building the cairn was a fine warming job, but the ice on our 
whiskers often took some ten minutes thawing out. To-morrow 
we hope to lay out the cairns to the westward, and then to shape 
our course for the Bluff." 
The weather became bad again during the night. A bhzzard 
kept the men in their sleeping-bags on February 21, and it 
was not until the afternoon of the 23rd that Mackintosh and 
Joyce made an attempt to lay out the cairns to the west. They 
251 
