to these attacks of snow blindness, and also to
headaches before blizzards. I have an idea that his anxiety to sketch
whenever opportunity offered, and his willingness to take off his goggles
to search for tracks and cairns, had something to do with it. This attack
was very typical. "I wrote this at lunch and in the evening had a bad
attack of snow blindness." ... "Blizzard in afternoon. We only got in a
forenoon march. Couldn't see enough of the tracks to follow at all. My
eyes didn't begin to trouble me till to-morrow [yesterday], though it was
the strain of tracking and the very cold drift which we had to-day that
gave me this attack of snow glare." ... "Marched on foot in the afternoon
as my eyes were too bad to go on ski. We had a lot of drift and wind and
very cold. Had ZuSO_4 and cocaine in my eyes at night and didn't get to
sleep at all for the pain--dozed about an hour in the morning only." ...
"Marched on foot again all day as I couldn't see my way on ski at all,
Birdie used my ski. Eyes still very painful and watering. Tired out by
the evening, had a splendid night's sleep, and though very painful across
forehead to-night they are much better."[316]

The surface was awful: in his diary of the day after they left the Pole
(January 19) Wilson wrote an account of it. "We had a splendid wind right
behind us most of the afternoon and went well until about 6 P.M. when the
sun came out and we had an awful grind until 7.30 when we camped. The sun
comes out on sandy drifts, all on the move in the wind, and temp. -20 deg.,
and gives us an absolutely awful surface with no glide at all for ski or
sledge, and just like fine sand. The weather all day has been more or
less overcast with white broken alto-stratus, and for 3 degrees above the
horizon there is a grey belt looking like a blizzard of drift, but this
in reality is caused by a constant fall of minute snow crystals, very
minute. Sometimes instead of crystal plates the fall is of minute
agglomerate spicules like tiny sea-urchins. The plates glitter in the sun
as though of some size, but you can only just see them as pin-points on
your burberry. So the spicule collections are only just visible. Our
hands are never warm enough in camp to do any neat work now. The weather
is always uncomfortably cold and windy, about -23 deg., but after lunch
to-day I got a bit of drawing done."[317]

All the joy had gone from their sledging. They were hungry, they were
cold, the pulli