re and threw it
into the air again and again, until it was burning in little bits all
over the snow. The relief was great."[130]

* * * * *

Bowers must tell the story of the returning party:

"We topped the ridges and headed for Erebus beyond Castle Rock. It looked
a little threatening at first, but cleared a bit as we got on. It was
quite interesting to be breaking new ground. Scott is a fine stepper in a
sledge, and he set a fast and easy swing all the time. It was snowing and
misty when we got beyond the Hutton Cliffs, but we pitched the tents for
lunch before going down the slope. There was no doubt that a blizzard was
coming up. It cleared during lunch, which we finished about 3.30 P.M., as
it had been a long morning march.

"It was just as well for us that the mist cleared, for the slope was not
only crevassed in one direction, but it ended in a high ice-cliff. By
working along we found a lowish place about thirty feet down from top to
bottom. Over this we lowered men and sledges. It had started to blow and
the drift was flying off the cliff in clouds. We put in a couple of
strong male bamboos to lower the last man away, leaving the Alpine rope
there to facilitate ascent (i.e. for any party returning to Hut Point
with food). We then repacked the sledges and headed across the bay
towards the Glacier Tongue, where we arrived after dark about 6 P.M. The
young sea-ice was covered in a salt deposit which made it like pulling a
sledge over treacle instead of ice, and it was very heavy going after the
snow uplands. The Tongue was mostly hard blue ice, which is slipperiness
itself, and crevassed every few yards. Most of these were bridged, but
you were continually pushing a foot, or sometimes two, into nothingness,
in the semi-darkness. None of us, however, went down to the extent of our
harness.

"Arrived on the other side we struck a sheltered dip, where we decided to
camp for something to eat. It was after 8 P.M. and I was for camping
there for the night, as it seemed to me folly to venture upon a piece of
untried newly frozen sea-ice in inky darkness, with a blizzard coming up
behind us. Against this of course we were only five miles from Cape
Evans, and though we had hardly any grub with us, not having anticipated
the cliff or the saltness of the sea-ice, and having to set out to do the
journey in one day, I thought hunger in a sleeping-bag better than lying
out in a blizzard on l