l enough to go on. Outside, the
snow fell in "torrents," piled up round the tent and pressed in until it
was no bigger than a coffin, of which it reminded me.

I passed most of the day doctoring myself, attending to raw and inflamed
places. Tufts of my beard and hair came out, and the snowy floor of the
tent was strewn with it at every camp.

"January 26.--I went on again in dense, driving snow. There was no need
of the sail. The wind, which was behind, caught the sledge and bundled
it along so that, though over a soft surface of snow, the travelling was
rapid. The snow was in large, rounded grains, and beat on the tent like
hail. Altogether nine miles were covered.

"January 27.--Blizzard-bound again. The previous day's exertions were
too much for me to undertake the same again without a long rest.

"January 28,--In the morning the wind had moderated very much but the
sky remained overcast and snow continued to fall. It was a long job
digging the tent out. Soon after the start the sun gleamed and the
weather improved. The three-thousand-foot crest of the plateau had been
crossed and I was bearing down rapidly on Commonwealth Bay, the vicinity
of which showed up as a darker patch on the clouds of the north-west
horizon.

"The evening was fine and I really began to feel that Winter Quarters
were approaching. To increase my excitement Madigan Nunatak came into
view for a time in the clear, evening light. Distance covered, over
eight miles."

The calm of the previous evening was broken again, and I started on the
morning of January 29 in considerable drift and a fairly strong wind.
After going five miles I had miraculous good fortune.

I was travelling along on an even down grade and was wondering how long
the two pounds of food which remained would last, when something dark
loomed through the drift a short distance away to the right. All sorts
of possibilities fled through my mind as I headed the sledge for it. The
unexpected happened--it was a cairn of snow erected by McLean, Hodgeman
and Hurley, who had been out searching for us. On the top of the mound
was a bag of food, left on the chance that it might be picked up, while
in a tin was a note stating the bearing and distance of the mound from
Aladdin's Cave (E. 30 degrees S., distance twenty-three miles), that the
Ship had arrived at the Hut and was waiting, that Amundsen had reached
the Pole, and that Scott was remaining another year in Antarctica.

It was ra