538 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[January 
weather. The sastrugi grow more and more confused, 
running from S. to E. Very difficult steering in uncertain 
light and with rapidly moving clouds. The clouds don't 
seem to come from anywhere, form and disperse without 
visible reason. The surface seems to be growing softer. 
The meteorological conditions seem to point to an area of 
variable light winds, and that plot will thicken as we 
advance. 
T hursday, January I I . — Lunch. Height 10,540. 
T. -1 5 0 8'. It was heavy pulling from the beginning 
to-day, but for the first two and a half hours we could 
keep the sledge moving ; then the sun came out (it had 
been overcast and snowing with light south-easterly breeze) 
and the rest of the forenoon was agonising. I never had 
such pulling ; all the time the sledge rasps and creaks. 
We have covered 6 miles, but at fearful cost to ourselves. 
Night camp 63. Height 10,530. Temp. - 16-3°. Mini- 
mum - 25-8°. Another hard grind in the afternoon and 
five miles added. About 74 miles from the Pole— can we 
keep this up for seven days ? It takes it out of us like 
anything. None of us ever had such hard work before. 
Cloud has been coming and going overhead all day, drifting 
from the S.E., but continually altering shape. Snow 
crystals falling all the time ; a very light S. breeze at start 
soon dying away. The sun so bright and warm to-night 
that it is almost impossible to imagine a minus temperature. 
The snow seems to get softer as we advance ; the sastrugi, 
though sometimes high and undercut, are not hard— no 
crusts, except yesterday the surface subsided once, as on 
the Barrier. It seems pretty certain there is no steady 
