teepest part of the
slope (one in three and a half) and, on slipping back, was brought to
rest with ease. The surface was hard, polished blue ice. The air-rudder,
by the way, was efficient at speeds exceeding fifteen miles per hour.

On the 20th we had a calm morning, so Whetter and I set out for
Aladdin's Cave to depot twenty gallons of benzene and six gallons
of oil. The engine was not running well, one cylinder occasionally
"missing." But, in spite of this and a head wind of fifteen miles per
hour, we covered the distance between the one-mile and the two-mile
flags in three minutes. This was on ice, and the gradient was about one
in fifteen. We went no farther that day, and it was lucky that we did
so, for, soon after our return to the Hut, it was blowing more than
sixty miles per hour.

On December 2 Hodgeman joined us in a very successful trip to Aladdin's
Cave with nine 8-gallon tins of benzene on a sledge; weighing in all
seven hundred pounds.

After having such a good series of results with the machine, the start
of the real journey was fixed for December 3. At 3 P.M. it fell calm,
and we left at 4 P.M., amid an inspiriting demonstration of goodwill
from the six other men. Arms were still waving violently as we crept
noisily over the brow of the hill and the Hut disappeared from sight.

On the two steepest portions it was necessary to walk, but, these past,
the machine went well with a load of three men and four hundred pounds,
reaching Aladdin's Cave in an hour by a route free of small crevasses,
which I had discovered on the previous day. Here we loaded up with
three 100-lb. food-bags, twelve gallons of oil (one hundred and thirty
pounds), and seven hundred pounds of benzene. Altogether, there was
enough fuel and lubricating oil to run the engine at full speed for
twenty hours as well as full rations for three men for six weeks.

After a few minutes spent in disposing the loads, our procession of
machine, four sledges (in tow) and three men moved off. The going was
slow, too slow--about three miles an hour on ice. This would probably
mean no movement at all on snow which might soon be expected. But
something was wrong. The cylinder which had been missing fire a few
days before, but which had since been cleaned and put in order, was
now missing fire again, and the speed, proportionately, had dropped too
much.

I made sure that the oil was circulating, and cleaned the sparking-plug,
but the trouble was no