night, when the wind, which we
had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather. It fell below
-40 deg. in the night, and this morning it took 11/2 hours to get our foot-gear
on, but we got away before eight. We lost cairn and tracks together and
made as steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing. Worse was to
come--the surface is simply awful. In spite of strong wind and full sail
we have only done 51/2 miles. We are in a _very_ queer street, since there
is no doubt we cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold
horribly."[346]

They did nearly ten miles that day, but on March 3 they had a terrible
time. "God help us," wrote Scott, "we can't keep up this pulling, that is
certain. Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man
feels in his heart I can only guess. Putting on foot-gear in the morning
is getting slower and slower, therefore every day more dangerous."

The following extracts are taken from Scott's diary.

"_March 4. Lunch._ We are in a very tight place indeed, but none of us
despondent _yet_, or at least we preserve every semblance of good cheer,
but one's heart sinks as the sledge stops dead at some sastrugi behind
which the surface sand lies thickly heaped. For the moment the
temperature is in the -20 deg.--an improvement which makes us much more
comfortable, but a colder snap is bound to come again soon. I fear that
Oates at least will weather such an event very poorly. Providence to our
aid! We can expect little from man now except the possibility of extra
food at the next depot. It will be real bad if we get there and find the
same shortage of oil. Shall we get there? Such a short distance it would
have appeared to us on the summit! I don't know what I should do if
Wilson and Bowers weren't so determinedly cheerful over things."

[Illustration: MOUNT LONGSTAFF--E. A. Wilson, del. Emery Walker Limited,
Collotypers.]

"_Monday, March 5. Lunch._ Regret to say going from bad to worse. We got
a slant of wind yesterday afternoon, and going on 5 hours we converted
our wretched morning run of 31/2 miles into something over 9. We went to
bed on a cup of cocoa and pemmican solid with the chill off.... The
result is telling on all, but mainly on Oates, whose feet are in a
wretched condition. One swelled up tremendously last night and he is very
lame this morning. We started march on tea and pemmican as last night--we
pretend to prefer the pemmican this way. Marched for 5 hou