SXOW LIKE DKSKRT SAND 
575 
such a surface as we have got. I fear there will not be 
much change for the next 3 or 4 days. 
R. 33. Temp. - 17 0 . We have struggled out 4/6 miles 
in a short day over a really terrible surface — it has been 
like pulling over desert sand, not the least glide in the 
world. If this goes on we shall have a bad time, but I 
sincerely trust it is only the result of this windless area 
close to the coast and that, as wc are making steadily 
outwards, we shall shortly escape it. It is perhaps prema- 
ture to be anxious about covering distance. In all other 
respects things are improving. Wc have our sleeping- 
bags spread on the sledge and they are drying, but, above 
all, wc have our full measure of food again. To-night 
we had a sort of stew fry of pemmican and horseflesh, and 
voted it the best hoosh we had ever had on a sledge 
journey. The absence of poor Evans is a help to the 
commissariat, but if he had been here in a fit state we 
might have got along faster. I wonder what is in store 
for us, with some little alarm at the lateness of the season. 
Monday, February 20. — R. 34. Lunch Temp. -13 0 ; 
Supper Temp. -15°. Same terrible surface ; four hours' 
hard plodding in morning brought us to our Desolation 
Camp, where wc had the four-day blizzard. We looked 
for more pony meat, but found none. After lunch wc 
took to ski with some improvement of comfort. Total 
mileage for day 7 — the ski tracks pretty plain and easily 
followed this afternoon. We have left another cairn 
behind. Terribly slow progress, but wc hope for better 
things as wc clear the land. There is a tendency to cloud 
over in the S.E. to-night, which may turn to our advantage. 
