i9i2] THREE BLOWS OF MISFORTUNE 
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fairly easily yesterday afternoon, and since that have 
suffered three distinct blows which have placed us 
in a bad position. First we found a shortage of oil ; 
with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to the 
next depot on this surface (71 miles away). Second, 
Titus Oates disclosed his feet, the toes showing very bad 
indeed, evidently bitten by the late temperatures. The 
third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we 
had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather. 
It fell below -40 0 in the night, and this morning it took 
i£ hours to get our foot gear on, but we got away before 
eight. We lost cairn and tracks together and made as 
steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing. 
Worse was to come — the surface is simply awful. In spite 
of strong wind and full sail we have only done 5^ miles. 
We are in a very queer street since there is no doubt we 
cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly. 
Saturday, March 3. — Lunch. We picked up the 
track again yesterday, finding ourselves to the eastward. 
Did close on 10 miles and things looked a trifle better; 
but this morning the outlook is blacker than ever. 
Started well and with good breeze ; for an hour made 
good headway ; then the surface grew awful beyond 
words. The wind drew forward ; every circumstance was 
against us. After \\ hours things so bad that we camped, 
having covered 4^ miles. (R. 46.) One cannot consider 
this a fault of our own — certainly we were pulling hard 
this morning — it was more than three parts surface which 
held us back — the wind at strongest, powerless to move 
the sledge. When the light is good it is easy to see the 
