e was a deposit of five feet of freshly fallen
snow. The upper two feet was soft and powdery, offering no resistance;
under that it was still soft, so that we sank to our thighs every step
and frequently to the waist. By 4.30 P.M. both sledges were rescued,
and it was ascertained that no gear had been lost. We all found that the
week of idleness and confinement had weakened us, and at first were only
able to take short spells at the digging. The sky and barometer promise
fine weather to-morrow, but what awful work it will be pulling!"

At 5.30 A.M. on March 29 the weather was bright and calm. As a strong
wind had blown throughout the night, a harder surface was expected.
Outside, we were surprised to find a fresh wind and thick, low drift;
owing to the tents being snowed up so high, the threshing of the drift
was not audible. To my disgust the surface was as soft as ever. It
appeared that the only resort was to leave the provisions for the depot
on the nearest ridge and return to the Base. The temperature was -20
degrees F., and, while digging out the tents, Dovers had his nose
frost-bitten.

It took six of us well over an hour to drag the necessary food half a
mile up a rise of less than one hundred feet; the load, sledge included,
not being five hundred pounds. Nearly all the time we were sinking
thigh-deep, and the sledge itself was going down so far that the
instrument-box was pushing a mass of snow in front of it. Arriving on
the ridge, Moyes found that his foot was frozen and he had to go back to
camp, as there was too much wind to bring it round in the open.

Sufficient food and oil were left at this depot for three men for six
weeks; also a minimum thermometer.

In a fresh breeze and flying drift we were off at 10 A.M. next day. At
first we were ambitious and moved away with two sledges, sinking from
two to three feet all the time. Forty yards was as much as we could do
without a rest, and by lunch time nine hundred yards was the total.
Now the course was downhill, and the two sledges were pulled together,
creeping along with painful slowness, as walking was the hardest
work imaginable. After one of the most strenuous days I have ever
experienced, we camped; the sledge-meter recorded one mile four hundred
and fifty yards.

A spell of two days' blizzard cooped us up once more, but improved
the surface slightly. Still, it was dreadfully soft, and, but for the
falling gradient, we would not have made what we d