ead of going along the Peninsula to the Hutton Cliffs. Soon
after they started it came up thick, and by 11.30 it was blowing a mild
blizzard with a low temperature. We felt considerable anxiety, especially
when a full blizzard set in with a temperature down to -31 deg., and we could
not see how the ice was standing it. Two days later it cleared, and that
night a flare was lit at Cape Evans at a pre-arranged time, by which
signal we knew that they had arrived safely. We heard afterwards that
when it came up thick they decided to follow the land which was the only
thing that they could see. They soon found that the ice was not nearly so
good as was supposed: there were open pools of water, and some of the ice
was moving up and down with their weight as they crossed it: Gran put his
foot in. Then Wright went ahead with the Alpine rope, the ice being blue,
the pulling easy, and the wind force 4-5. As far as Turtleback Island the
ice was newly frozen, but after that they knew they were on oldish ice.
They were lost on Cape Evans in the blizzard for some time, but
eventually found the hut safely. One of the lessons of this expedition is
that too little care was taken in travelling on sea-ice.

Atkinson, Dimitri and I left for Cape Evans with the two dog-teams on May
1. Directly we started it was evident that the surface was very bad: even
the ice near Hut Point, which had been frozen for a long time, was hard
pulling for the dogs, and when after less than a mile we got on to ice
which had frozen quite lately the sledges were running on snow which in
turn lay on salt sleet. It seemed a long time before we got abreast of
Castle Rock, following close along the land for the weather was very
thick: when we started we could just see the outline of Inaccessible
Island, but by now the horizon was lost in the dusk and haze. We decided
to push on to Turtleback Island and go over Glacier Tongue in order to
get on to the older ice as soon as possible. The dogs began to get very
done: Manuki Noogis, who had been harnessed in as leader (for Rabchick
had deserted in the night), gave in completely, lay down and refused to
be persuaded to go on: we had to cast him off and hope that he would
follow. After a time Turtleback Island was visible in the gloom, but it
was all we could do, pushing and pulling the sledges to help the dogs, to
get them so far. We were now on the older ice: our way was easier and we
reached Cape Evans without further inci