lking about
the camp. Indeed Nelson says that the only time when Khan Sahib does not
cast himself adrift is when he is ready to start on the march.

_November 6. Early morning._ We had a really good lie-in yesterday, and
after the hard slogging with the dogs during the last few days I for one
was very glad of it. We came on behind, and in sight of the mules this
last march, and the change in the dogs was wonderful. Where it had been a
job to urge them on over quite as good a surface yesterday, to-day for
some time we could not get off the sledge except for short runs: although
we had taken 312 lbs. weight off the mules and loaded it on to the dogs.

We had a most glorious night for marching, and it is now bright sunlight,
and the animals' fur is quite warm where the sun strikes it. We have just
had a bit of a fight over the dog-food, Vaida going for Dyk, and now the
others are somewhat excited, and there are constant growlings and
murmurings.

The camp makes more of a mark than last year, for the mules are dark
while the ponies were white or grey, and the cloths are brown instead of
light green. The consequence is that the camp shows up from a long
distance off. We are building cairns at regular distances, and there
should be no difficulty in keeping on the course in fair weather at any
rate. Now in the land of big sastrugi: Erebus is beginning to look small,
but we could see an unusually big smoke from the crater all day.

_November 7. Early morning._ Not an easy day. It was -9 deg. and overcast
when we turned out, and the wind was then dying down, but it had been
blowing up to force 5, with surface drift during the day. We started in a
bad light and the surface, which was the usual hard surface common here,
with big sastrugi, was covered by a thin layer of crystals which were
then falling. This naturally made it very much harder pulling: we with
the dogs have been running nearly all the twelve miles, and I for one am
tired. At lunch Atkinson thought he saw a tent away to our right,--the
very thought of it came as a shock,--but it proved to be a false alarm.
We have been keeping a sharp look-out for the gear which was left about
this part by the Last Return Party, but have seen no sign of it.

It is now -14 deg., but the sun is shining brightly in a clear sky, and it
feels beautifully warm. It seems a very regular thing for the sky to
cloud over as the sun gets low towards nightfall--and directly the sun
begins to