up; so without more ado we dropped it. In future we were to estimate our
speed, having already had some good experience in this way.

No sooner had Friday December 13 come on the scene than a catastrophe
overtook us. The superstitious might have blamed Fate, but on this
occasion there was no room for doubt; the fault was mine. The sail was
up and, while braking the load upwind, I slipped and fell, allowing the
sledge to collide with a large sastruga. The bow struck the solid snow
with such force that it was smashed.

Next day a new bow was manufactured from a spare bamboo which had been
brought as a depot pole. It took some time splitting and bending this
into position and then lashing it with raw hide. But the finished
article fully justified the means, and, in spite of severe treatment,
the makeshift stood for the rest of the journey.

While on the march on December 16, the wind dropped and the drift ceased
for the first time since December 5; for eleven days it had been heavy
or moderate. Before we got into harness on the same day, a Wilson petrel
flew above us. This little touch of life, together with the bright sun,
light wind and lack of drift enabled us to start away in better spirits
than had been our wont.

The next four days passed in excellent weather. The surface was mainly
hard and the clusters of large sastrugi could generally be avoided.
Patches of softer "piecrust" were met but only lasted for two or three
miles. Making up for lost time, we did a few miles short of one hundred
in five days.

Unfortunately there was always drift at midday, so that it was
impossible to get a latitude "shot" with a sextant and artificial
horizon.

On December 19 camp was pitched at 1 A.M. before a glorious view; an
horizon of sea from west to north-east and white fields of massive
bergs. In the extreme west there was something which very closely
resembled pack-ice.

On the 20th the surface was softer and the snow more recent, but the
wind was behind us and for part of the day the track led downhill into a
peculiar saucer-shaped depression which, on our first entry, looked
like a valley closed at the far end, while when we came to the middle it
resolved itself once more into a saucer.

Camping here, I managed to get a good time-shot, so that, provided we
occupied this camp on the return journey, I reckoned that I could get
the watch-rate and fix the approximate longitude of the pack-ice, which
for two days had be