SOUTH 
men liad jjerislied was accepted reluctantly. The party at the 
base consisted now of Stevens, Cope, Joyce, Richards, Gaze, 
Wild, and Jack. 
The men settled down now to wait for relief. When oppor- 
tunity offered Joyce led search-parties to look for the bodies 
or any trace of the missing men, and he subsequently handed 
me the following report : 
" I beg to report that the following steps were taken to try 
and discover the bodies of Captain Mackintosh and Mr. Hay- 
ward. After our party's return to the hut at Cape Evans, 
July 15, 1916, it was learned that Captain Mackintosh and 
Mr. Hayward had not arrived ; and, being aware of the condi- 
tions under which they were last seen, all the members of the 
wintering party were absolutely convinced that these two men 
were totally lost and dead— that they could not have lived for 
more than a few hours at the outside in the blizzard that they 
had encountered, they being entirely unprovided with equipment 
of any sort. 
" There was the barest chance that after the return of the 
sun some trace of their bodies might be found, so during the 
spring— that is, August and September 1916— and in the summer 
—December and January 1916-17— the following searches were 
carried out : 
" (1) Wild and I thoroughly searched Inaccessible Island 
at the end of August 1916. 
" (2) Various parties in September searched along the shore 
to the vicinity of Turk's Head. 
" (3) In company with Messrs. Wild and Gaze I started 
from Hut Point, December 31, 1916, at 8 a.m., and a course 
was steered inshore as close as possible to the cliffs in order to 
search for any possible means of ascent. At a distance of half 
a mile from Hut Point we passed a snow slope which I had 
already ascended in June 1916 ; three and a half miles farther 
on was another snow slope which ended in Blue Ice Glacier 
slope, which we found impossible to climb, snow slope being 
formed by heavy winter snowfall. These were the only two 
places accessible. Distance on this day, 10 miles 1710 yds 
302 
