near Corner Camp which up to that time I
thought was ten to fifteen miles away: this was a great relief, and we
debated packing up again and going to it, but decided to stay where we
were.

It was fairly clear on the morning of March 14, which was lucky, for it
was now obvious that we were miles from Corner Camp and much too near the
land. The flag we had seen must have been a miraged piece of pressure,
and it was providential that we had not made for it, and found worse
trouble than we actually experienced. Try all I could that morning, my
team, which was leading, insisted on edging westwards. At last I saw what
I thought was a cairn, but found out just in time that it was a haycock
or mound of ice formed by pressure: by its side was a large open
crevasse, of which about fifty yards of snow-bridge had fallen in. For
several miles we knew that we were crossing big crevasses by the hollow
sound, and it was with considerable relief that I sighted the motor and
then Corner Camp some two or three miles to the east of us. "Dimitri had
left his Alpine rope there, and also I should have liked to have brought
in Evans' sledge, but it would have meant about five miles extra, and I
left it. I hope Scott, finding no note, will not think we are lost."[267]

Dimitri seemed to be getting worse, and we pushed on until we camped that
night only fifteen miles from Hut Point. My main anxiety was whether the
sea-ice between us and Hut Point was in, because I felt that the job of
getting the teams up on to the Peninsula and along it and down the other
side would be almost more than we could do: there was an ominous
open-water sky ahead.

On March 15 we were held up all day by a strong blizzard. But by 8 A.M.
the next morning we could see just the outline of White Island. I was
very anxious, for Dimitri said that he had nearly fainted, and I felt
that we must get on somehow, and chance the sea-ice being in. He stayed
inside the tent as long as possible, and my spirits rose as the land
began to clear all round while I was packing up both sledges. From Safety
Camp the mirage at the edge of the Barrier was alarming, but as we
approached the edge to my very great relief I found that the sea-ice was
still in, and that what we had taken for frost smoke was only drift over
Cape Armitage.

Pushing into the drift round the corner I found Atkinson on the sea-ice,
and Keohane in the hut behind. In a few minutes we had the gist of one
another's new