X9ix] BAD RUNNING OF A SLEDGE 523 
we shall have no more of them. We have not lost sight of 
the sun since we came on the summit ; we should get an 
extraordinary record of sunshine. It is monotonous 
work this ; the sledgcmeter and theodolite govern the 
situation. 
Thursday, December 28. Lunch. Bar. 2077. I start 
cooking again to-morrow morning. We have had a 
troublesome day but have completed our 13 miles (geo.). 
My unit pulled away easy this morning and stretched out 
for two hours — the second unit made heavy weather. I 
changed with Evans and found the second sledge heavy — 
could keep up, but the team was not swinging with me as 
my own team swings. Then I changed P.O. Evans for 
Lashly. We seemed to get on better, but at the moment 
the surface changed and we came up over a rise with hard 
sastrugi. At the top we camped for lunch. What was 
the difficulty ? One theory was that some members of 
the second party were stale. Another that all was due 
to the bad stepping and want of swing ; another that 
the sledge pulled heavy. In the afternoon we exchanged 
sledges, and at first went off well, but getting into soft 
snow, we found a terrible drag, the second party coming 
quite easily with our sledge. So the sledge is the cause 
of the trouble, and talking it out, I found that all is due 
to want of care. The runners ran excellently, but the 
structure has been distorted by bad strapping, bad loading, 
&c. The party are not done, and I have told them plainly 
that they must wrestle with the trouble and get it right 
for themselves. There is no possible reason why they 
should not get along as easily as we do. 
