LAYING THE DEPOTS 
" Still blizzarding/' wrote Joyce again on the 21st. " We 
are lying in pools of water made by our bodies through staying 
in the same place for such a long time. I don't know what we 
shall do if this does not ease. It has been blowing continuously 
without a lull. The food for to-day was one cup of pemmican 
amongst three of us, one biscuit each, and two cups of tea 
among the three." The kerosene was exhausted, but Richards 
improvised a lamp by pouring some spirit (intended for priming 
the oil-lamp) into a mug, lightuig it, and holding another mug 
over it. It took half an hour to heat a mug of melted snow 
in this way. " Same old thing, no ceasing of this bhzzard," 
was Joyce's note twenty-four hours later. Hardly any food 
left except tea and sugar. Richards, Hayward, and I, after a 
long talk, decided to get under way to-morrow in any case, 
or else we shall be sharing the fate of Captain Scott and his 
party. The other tent seems to be very quiet, but now and 
again we hear a burst of song from Wild, so they are m the land 
of the living. We gave the dogs the last of their food to-night, 
so we shall have to push, as a great deal depends on them." 
Further quotations from Joyce's diary tell their own story. 
" February 23, Wednesday. — ^About 11 o'clock saw a break 
ra the clouds and the sun showing. Decided to have the meal 
we kept for getting under way. Sang out to the Skipper's 
party that we should shift as soon as we had a meal. I asked 
Wild, and found they had a bag of oatmeal, some Bovril cubes, 
one bag of chocolate, and eighteen biscuits, so they are much 
better off than we are. After we had our meal we started to 
dig out our sledge, which we found right under. It took us 
two hours, and one would hardly credit how weak we were. 
Two digs of the shovel and we were out of breath. This was 
caused through our lying up on practically no food. After 
getting sledge out we took it around to the Skipper's tent on 
account of the heavy sastrugi, which was very high. Got under 
way about 2.20. Had to stop very often on account of sail, 
etc. About 3.20 the Skipper, who had tied himself to the rear 
of the sledge, found it impossible to proceed. So after a con- 
sultation with Wild and party, decided to pitch their tent, 
leaving Wild to look after the Skipper and Spencer-Smith, and 
285 
