496 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [December 
Here where we are camped the snow is worse than I 
have ever seen it, but we are in a hollow. Every step here 
one sinks to the knees and the uneven surface is obviously 
insufficient to support the sledges. Perhaps this wind is 
a blessing in disguise, already it seems to be hardening the 
snow. All this soft snow is an aftermath of our prolonged 
storm. Hereabouts Shackleton found hard blue ice. It 
seems an extraordinary difference in fortune, and at every 
step S.'s luck becomes more evident. I take the dogs 
on for half a day to-morrow, then send them home. We 
have 200 lbs. to add to each sledge load and could 
easily do it on a reasonable surface, but it looks very 
much as though we shall be forced to relay if present 
conditions hold. There is a strong wind down the glacier 
to-night. 
' Beardmore Glacier. — Just a tiny note to be taken 
back by the dogs. Things are not so rosy as they 
might be, but we keep our spirits up and say the luck 
must turn. This is only to tell you that I find I can 
keep up with the rest as well as of old.' 
Monday, December 11. — Camp 33. A very good day 
from one point of view, very bad from another. Wc 
started straight out over the glacier and passed through a 
good deal of disturbance. We pulled on ski and the dogs 
followed. I cautioned the drivers to keep close to their 
sledges and we must have passed over a good many 
crevasses undiscovered by us, thanks to ski, and by the 
dogs owing to the soft snow. In one only Seaman Evans 
dropped a leg, ski and all. We built our depot * before 
* The Lower Glacier Depot. 
