ke blazes all the afternoon. I think it is
moderating now, 9 P.M. We are only seven miles from our depot and this
delay is exasperating."[313]

[Scott wrote: "This is the second full gale since we left the Pole. I
don't like the look of it. Is the weather breaking up? If so, God help
us, with the tremendous summit journey and scant food. Wilson and Bowers
are my stand-by. I don't like the easy way in which Oates and Evans get
frost-bitten."[314]]

"_January 25._ It was no use turning out at our usual time (5.45 A.M.),
as the blizzard was as furious as ever; we therefore decided on a late
breakfast and no lunch unless able to march. We have only three days'
food with us and shall be in Queer Street if we miss the depot. Our bags
are getting steadily wetter, so are our clothes. It shows a tendency to
clear off now (breakfast time) so, D.V., we may march after all. I am in
tribulation as regards meals now as we have run out of salt, one of my
favourite commodities. It is owing to Atkinson's party taking back an
extra tin by mistake from the Upper Glacier Depot. Fortunately we have
some depoted there, so I will only have to endure another two weeks
without it.

"10 P.M.--We have got in a march after all, thank the Lord. Assisted by
the wind we made an excellent rundown to our One and a Half Degree Depot,
where the big red flag was blowing out like fury with the breeze, in
clouds of driving drift. Here we picked up 11/4 cans of oil and one week's
food for five men, together with some personal gear depoted. We left the
bamboo and flag on the cairn. I was much relieved to pick up the depot:
now we only have one other source of anxiety on this endless snow summit,
viz. the Three Degree Depot in latitude 86 deg. 56' S.

"In the afternoon we did 5.2 miles. It was a miserable march, blizzard
all the time and our sledge either sticking in sastrugi or overrunning
the traces. We had to lower the sail half down, and Titus and I hung on
to her. It was most strenuous work, as well as much colder than pulling
ahead. Most of the time we had to brake back with all our strength to
keep the sledge from overrunning. Bill got a bad go of snow glare from
following the track without goggles on.

"This day last year we started the Depot Journey. I did not think so
short a time would turn me into an old hand at polar travelling, neither
did I imagine at the time that I would be returning from the Pole
itself."[315]

Wilson was very subject