of the temperature we can stand about outside
in the greatest comfort. It is amusing to stand thus and remember the
constant horrors of our situation as they were painted for us: the sun is
melting the snow on the ski, etc. The plateau is now very flat, but we
are still ascending slowly. The sastrugi are getting more confused,
predominant from the S.E. I wonder what is in store for us. At present
everything seems to be going with extraordinary smoothness.... We feel
the cold very little, the great comfort of our situation is the excellent
drying effect of the sun.... Our food continues to amply satisfy. What
luck to have hit on such an excellent ration. We really are an
excellently found party ... we lie so very comfortably, warmly clothed in
our comfortable bags, within our double-walled tent."[297]

Then something happened.

While Scott was writing the sentences you have just read, he reached the
summit of the plateau and started, ever so slightly, to go downhill. The
list of corrected altitudes given by Simpson in his meteorological
report are of great interest: Cape Evans 0, Shambles Camp 170, Upper
Glacier Depot 7151, Three Degree Depot 9392, One and a Half Degree Depot
9862, South Pole 9072 feet above sea-level.[298]

What happened is not quite clear, but there is no doubt that the surface
became very bad, that the party began to feel the cold, and that before
long Evans especially began to crock. The immediate trouble was bad
surfaces. I will try and show why these surfaces should have been met in
what was, you must remember, now a land which no man had travelled
before.

Scott laid his One and a Half Degree Depot (i.e. 11/2 deg. or 90 miles from
the Pole) on January 10. That day they started to go down, but for
several days before that the plateau had been pretty flat. Time after
time in the diaries you find crystals--crystals--crystals: crystals
falling through the air, crystals bearding the sastrugi, crystals lying
loose upon the snow. Sandy crystals, upon which the sun shines and which
made pulling a terrible effort: when the sky clouds over they get along
much better. The clouds form and disperse without visible reason. And
generally the wind is in their faces.

Wright tells me that there is certain evidence in the records which may
explain these crystals. Halos are caused by crystals and nearly all those
logged from the bottom of the Beardmore to the Pole and back were on this
stretch of country, wher