all good luck and
success. The first 11 miles was on the down-grade over the ice-falls,
and at a good pace we completed this in about four hours. Lunched,
and on, completing nearly 23 miles for the first day. At the end of the
second day we got among very bad crevasses through keeping too far to
the eastward. This delayed us slightly and we made the depot on the
third day. We reached the Lower Glacier Depot three and a half days
after. The lower part of the glacier was very badly crevassed. These
crevasses we had never seen on the way up, as they had been covered
with three to four feet of snow. All the bridges of crevasses were
concave and very wide; no doubt their normal summer condition. On
Christmas Day we made in to the lateral moraine of the Cloudmaker and
collected geological specimens. The march across the Barrier was only
remarkable for the extremely bad lights we had. For eight consecutive
days we only saw an exceedingly dim sun during three hours. Up to One
Ton Depot our marches had averaged 14.1 geographical miles a day. We
arrived at Cape Evans on January 28, 1912, after being away for three
months. [E.L.A.]

_Note_ 24, _p_. 364.--_January_ 3. Return of the second supporting
party.

Under average conditions, the return party should have well fulfilled
Scott's cheery anticipations. Three-man teams had done excellently
on previous sledging expeditions, whether in _Discovery_ days
or as recently as the mid-winter visit to the Emperor penguins'
rookery; and the three in this party were seasoned travellers
with a skilled navigator to lead them. But a blizzard held them
up for three days before reaching the head of the glacier. They
had to press on at speed. By the time they reached the foot of the
glacier, Lieut. Evans developed symptoms of scurvy. His spring work
of surveying and sledging out to Corner Camp and the man-hauling,
with Lashly, across the Barrier after the breakdown of the motors,
had been successfully accomplished; this sequel to the Glacier and
Summit marches was an unexpected blow. Withal, he continued to pull,
while bearing the heavy strain of guiding the course. While the hauling
power thus grew less, the leader had to make up for loss of speed by
lengthening the working hours. He put his watch on an hour. With the
'turning out' signal thus advanced, the actual marching period reached
12 hours. The situation was saved, and Evans flattered himself on
his ingenuity. But the men knew it all t