BASELESS FEARS ABOUT THE HUT 229 
sufficient proof in a case where an error of judgment might 
have had dire consequences. 
It was not until I found all safe at the Home Station 
that I realised how anxious I had been concerning it. In 
a normal season no thought of its having been in danger 
would have occurred to me, but since the loss of the ponies 
and the breaking of the Glacier Tongue I could not rid 
myself of the fear that misfortune was in the air and that 
some abnormal swell had swept the beach ; gloomy 
thoughts of the havoc that might have been wrought by 
such an event would arise in spite of the sound reasons 
which had originally led me to choose the site of the 
hut as a safe one. 
The late freezing of the sea, the terrible continuance 
of wind and the abnormalities to which I have referred 
had gradually strengthened the profound distrust with 
which I had been forced to regard our mysterious Antarctic 
climate until my imagination conjured up many forms of 
disaster as possibly falling on those from whom I had 
parted for so long. 
We marched towards Cape Evans under the usually 
miserable conditions which attend the breaking of camp 
in a cold wind after a heavy blizzard. The outlook was 
dreary in the grey light of early morning, our clothes were 
frozen stiff and our fingers, wet and cold in the tent, had 
been frostbitten in packing the sledges. 
A few comforting signs of life appeared as we approached 
the Cape : some old footprints in the snow, a long silk 
thread from the meteorologist's balloon ; but we saw 
nothing more as we neared the rocks of the promontory 
