conditions.

On New Year's Eve at 5.30 A.M. the wind was not so strong, so we got up
and prepared for the start.

Mertz said that he felt the dogs' meat was not doing him much good and
suggested that we should give it up for a time and eat a small ration
of the ordinary sledging food, of which we had still some days'
supply carefully husbanded. I agreed to do this and we made our first
experiment on that day. The ration tasted very sweet compared with dogs'
meat and was so scanty in amount that it left one painfully empty.

The light was so atrocious for marching that, after stumbling along for
two and a half miles, we were obliged to give up the attempt and camp,
spending the day in sleeping-bags.

In the evening at 9.30 P.M. the sun appeared for a brief moment and the
wind subsided. Another stage was therefore attempted but at considerable
cost, for we staggered along in the bewildering light, continually
falling over unseen sastrugi. The surface was undulating with a tendency
to down grades. Two sets of sastrugi were found crossing one another,
and, in the absence of the sun, we could not be sure of the course, so
the camp was pitched niter five miles.

"January 1, 1913.--Outside, an overcast sky and falling snow. Mertz was
not up to his usual form and we decided not to attempt blundering along
in the bad light, believing that the rest would be advantageous to him.

"He did not complain at all except of the dampness of his sleeping-bag,
though when I questioned him particularly he admitted that he had pains
in the abdomen. As I had a continuous gnawing sensation in the stomach,
I took it that he had the same, possibly more acute.

"After New Year's Day he expressed a dislike to biscuit, which seemed
rather strange. Then he suddenly had a desire for glaxo and our small
store was made over to him, I taking a considerable ration of the dogs'
meat in exchange.

"It was no use, however, for when we tried to cover a few more miles
the exertion told very heavily on him, and it was plain that he was in a
more serious condition than myself.

"January 2.--The same abominable weather. We eat only a few ounces of
chocolate each day.

"January 3.--In the evening the sky broke and the sun looked through the
clouds. We were not long in packing up and getting on the way. The night
was chilly and Mertz got frost-bitten fingers, so camp was pitched after
four miles one thousand two hundred and thirty yards.

"January 4.--