o this journey all along: "he had come on this trip fully believing that
there was every possibility of the party being lost, but had never
demurred and never offered a contrary opinion, and one cannot be thankful
enough to such men."[277] They made up the Butter Point Depot, marked it
as well as they could in case Campbell should arrive there, and left two
weeks' provisions for him. They could do no more.

They got back to the Eskers that same day and anxiously awaited the
twilight of the morning to reveal the state of the new sea-ice which they
had crossed on their outward journey. To their joy some of it remained
and they started to do the four miles between them and the old sea-ice.
For two miles they ran with the sail set: then they had a hard pull, and
some Emperor penguins whom they could see led them to suppose that there
was open water ahead. But they got through all right, and did ten miles
for the day. On Monday 22, "blizzard in morning, so started late, and
made for end of Pinnacled Ice. We found our little bay of sea-ice all
gone out. Luckily there was a sort of ice-foot around the Pinnacled Ice
and we completed seven miles and got through."[278]

_Tuesday, April 23._ "Atkinson and his party got in about 7 P.M. after a
long pull all day in very bad weather. They are just in the state of a
party which has been out on a very cold spring journey: clothes and
sleeping-bags very wet, sweaters, pyjama coats and so forth full of snow.
Atkinson looks quite done up, his cheeks are fallen in and his throat
shows thin. Wright is also a good deal done up, and the whole party has
evidently had little sleep. They have had a difficult and dangerous trip,
and it is a good thing they are in, and they are fortunate to have had no
mishaps, for the sea-ice is constantly going out over there, and when
they were on it they never knew that they might not find themselves cut
off from the shore. Big leads were constantly opening, even in ice over a
foot thick and with little wind. But even if the ice had been in I do not
believe that they could have gone many days."[279]

That same day the sun appeared for the last time for four months.

April 28 seemed to be a quite good day when we woke, and Wright, Keohane
and Gran started back for Cape Evans before 10 A.M. We could then see the
outline of Inaccessible Island, and the ice in the Sound looked fairly
firm. So they determined to go by the way of the sea-ice under Castle
Rock inst