with
less difficulty. Camped at 5 P.M., having done only twelve miles one
thousand and fifty yards since the morning of December 18.

"Up at 8 P.M. again, almost calm and sun shining. Still continuing a
westerly course we dropped several hundred feet, marching over rough,
slippery fields of sastrugi."

In the early morning hours of the 20th the surface changed to ice and
occasional crevasses appeared. It was clear that we had arrived at the
head of the Ninnis Glacier above the zone of serac we had traversed
on the outward journey. It was very satisfactory to know this; to be
certain that some landmark had been seen and recognized.

Soon after this discovery we came near losing Haldane, the big grey
wolf, in a crevasse. Miserably thin from starvation the wretched dogs
no longer filled their harness. As we pulled up Haldane, after he had
broken into a deep, sheer-walled crevasse, his harness slipped off just
as he reached the top. It was just possible to seize hold of his hair at
that moment and to land him safely, otherwise we should have lost many
days' rations.

He took to the harness once more but soon became uncertain in his
footsteps, staggered along and then tottered and fell. Poor brutes! that
was the way they all gave in--pulling till they dropped.

We camped at 4 A.M., thinking that a rest would revive Haldane. Inside
the tent some snow was thawed, and we drank the water with an addition
of a little primus spirit. A temperature reading showed-1 degree F.

Outside, the hungry huskies moaned unceasingly until we could bear to
hear them no longer. The tent was struck and we set off once more.

Haldane was strapped on the sledge as he could not walk. He had not
eaten the food we had given him, because his jaws seemed too weak to
bite. He had just nursed it between his paws and licked it.

Before the dogs became as weak as this, great care had to be taken in
tethering them at each camp so as to prevent them from gnawing the wood
of the sledge, the straps or, in fact, anything at all. Every time we
were ready for a fresh start they seemed to regain their old strength,
for they struggled and fought to seize any scraps, however useless, left
on the ground.

The day's march was completed at 10.30 A.M. and fourteen and a half
miles lay behind.

"We were up again at 11.20 P.M. Sky clear; fifteen-mile breeze from the
south-south-east and the temperature 3 degrees F. By midnight there was
a thirty-mile wind and