I was no better in
the morning and again had to ride. The others pulled away for five miles
with a good helping wind, but in a provoking light. The camp was made
where the one-hundred-mile mound was judged to be. We spent longer
over lunch, hoping that the clouds would clear. At last we moved on, or
rather _I_ was moved on. After two miles the surface became heavier. My
eyes were better now on account of the rest and a snow "poultice" Webb
had invented. I harnessed-in for five miles over light, unpacked snow,
with piecrust underneath. The day's work was twelve miles.

The snow-clouds broke at noon on January 3, and a reliable latitude was
obtained. It agreed with our reckoning. Persevering over the same trying
surface as on the previous day, we sighted the ninety-mile-mound in the
rear as a rift broke in the sky. We must have passed a few hundred yards
from it.

We were still eleven miles from the depot, so at breakfast on the 4th
the rations were reduced by one-half to give plenty of time to locate
our goal. On the 4th the sky was clear, but surface drift prevented
us from seeing any mounds till, in the afternoon, the ramps near the
sixty-seven-mile depot were discovered in fitful glimpses. They bore
too much to the north, so we altered course correspondingly to the west,
camping in rising wind and drift, with great hopes for the morrow.

A densely overcast sky on the 5th; light snow falling! We moved on two
miles, but not being able to see one hundred yards, camped again;
then walking as far as seemed safe in various directions. One could do
nothing but wait for clear weather. The clouds lightened at 6 P.M. and
again at 9 P.M., when altitudes of the sun were secured, putting us four
miles south of the depot.

With only one chronometer watch, one has to rely entirely on dead
reckoning for longitude, the rate of a single watch being very variable.
The longitude obtained on this occasion from our latest known rate
moved us several miles to the east of the depot, so I concluded that
our distances since the camp at ninety miles had been overestimated, and
that we were probably to the south-east of it. Accordingly, we shifted
four miles to the north-west, but by this time it had again clouded over
and nothing could be seen.

On the 6th the sky was still overcast, but a lucky peep at noon aligned
us on the exact latitude of the depot. We walked east and west, but it
snowed persistently and everything was invisible.

I