492 
SC01TS LAST EXPEDITION 
[DKCI.MBL.K 
Everything looks more hopeful to-night, but nothing can 
recall four lost days. 
Saturday , December 9. — Camp 31. I turned out two 
or three times in the night to find the weather slowly 
improving ; at 5.30 wc all got up, and at 8 got away with 
the ponies — a most painful day. The tremendous snowfall 
of the late storm had made the surface intolerably soft, 
and after the first hour there was no glide. Wc pressed 
on the poor half-rationed animals, but could get none to 
lead for more than a few minutes ; following, the animals 
would do fairly well. It looked as we could never make 
headway ; the man-haulers were pressed into the service 
to aid matters. Bowers and Cherry-Garrard went ahead 
with one 10-foot sledge — thus most painfully wc made 
about a mile. The situation was saved by P.O. Evans, 
who put the last pair of snowshocs on Snatchcr. From 
this he went on without much pressing, the other ponies 
followed, and one by one were worn out in the second 
place. Wc went on all day without lunch. Three or 
four miles (T. + 23 0 ) found us engulfed in pressures, but free 
from difficulty except the awful softness of the snow. 
By 8 p.m. we had reached within a mile or so of the slope 
ascending to the gap which Shacklcton called the Gate- 
way."* I had hoped to be through the Gateway with 
the ponies still in hand at a very much earlier date and, 
but for the devastating storm, wc should have been. It 
has been a most serious blow to us, but things are not 
yet desperate, if only the storm has not hopelessly spoilt 
the surface. The man-haulers are not up yet, in spite 
of their light load. I think they have stopped for tea, 
