ocks collected from a moraine under the Cloudmaker: the
same groping for tracks: the same cairns lost and found, the same
snow-blindness and weariness, nightmares, food dreams.... Why repeat?
Comparatively speaking it was a very little journey: and yet the distance
from Cape Evans to the top of the Beardmore Glacier and back is 1164
statute miles. Scott's Southern Journey of 1902-3 was 950 statute miles.

One day only is worth recalling. We got into the same big pressure above
the Cloudmaker which both the other parties experienced. But where the
other two parties made east to get out of it, we went west at Wright's
suggestion: west was right. The day really lives in my memory because of
the troubles of Keohane. He fell into crevasses to the full length of his
harness eight times in twenty-five minutes. Little wonder he looked a bit
dazed. And Atkinson went down into one chasm head foremost: the worst
crevasse fall I've ever seen. But luckily the shoulder straps of his
harness stood the strain and we pulled him up little the worse.

All three parties off the plateau owed a good deal to Meares, who, on his
return with the two dog-teams, built up the cairns which had been
obliterated by the big blizzard of December 5-8. The ponies' walls were
drifted level with the surface, and Meares himself had an anxious time
finding his way home. The dog tracks also helped us a good deal: the dogs
were sinking deeply and making heavy weather of it.

[Illustration: ADAMS MOUNTAINS]

[Illustration: Cherry-Garrard. Keohane. Atkinson--FIRST RETURN PARTY]

At the Barrier Depots we found rather despondent notes from Meares about
his progress. To the Southern Barrier Depot he had uncomfortably high
temperatures and a very soft surface, and found the cairns drifted up and
hard to see. At the Middle Barrier Depot we found a note from him dated
December 20. "Thick weather and blizzards had delayed him, and once he
had got right off the tracks and had been out from his camp hunting for
them. They were quite well: a little eye strain from searching for
cairns. He was taking a little butter from each bag [of the three depoted
weekly units], and with this would have enough to the next depot on short
rations."[255] At the Upper Glacier Depot [Mount Hooper] the news from
Meares was dated Christmas Eve, in the evening: "The dogs were going
slowly but steadily in very soft stuff, especially his last two days.
He was running short of food, having onl