ust north of the Avalanche Rocks.

While we were erecting the tents there were several snow-slips, and
Watson, Kennedy and I walked landwards after supper to try for a "snap"
of one in the act of falling, but they refused to oblige us. It was
found that one or more avalanches had thrown blocks of ice, weighing
at least twenty tons, two hundred yards past the hole in which we spent
five days on the depot journey. They had, therefore, travelled six
hundred yards from the cliff.

The Alligator Nunatak was explored on January 2, 1913. It was found to
be half a mile long, four hundred feet high and four hundred and fifty
feet in width, and, like most of the rock we had seen, mainly gneiss.

There was half a gale blowing on the 4th and though the wind was abeam,
the sail was reefed and we moved quickly. The dogs ran loose, their feet
being very sore from pulling on rough, nobbly ice. The day's run was the
record up to that time--twenty-two miles. Our camp was in the vicinity
of two small nunataks discovered in August 1912. We reckoned to be at
the Base in two days and wondered how poor Moyes was faring.

Early on the 5th, the last piece of broken country fell behind, and one
sledge being rigged with full sail, the second sledge was taken in tow.
Both dogs had bleeding feet and were released, running alongside. During
the halt for lunch a sail was raised on the dogs' sledge, using tent
poles as a mast, a floor-cloth for a sail, an ice-axe for an upper
yard and a bamboo for a lower yard. Getting under way we found that the
lighter sledge overran ours; so we cast off and Harrisson took the light
sledge, the sail working so well that he rode on top of the load most
of the time. Later in the afternoon the wind increased so much that the
dogs' sledge was dismasted and taken in tow once more, the sail on the
forward sledge being ample for our purpose.

At 4 P.M. we had done twenty miles, and, everybody feeling fresh, I
decided to try and reach "The Grottoes," fifteen miles away. The wind
increasing to a gale with hurtling drift, the sail was reefed, and even
then was more than enough to push along both sledges. Two of us made
fast behind and maintained a continual brake to stop them running away.
At 9 P.M. the gale became so strong that we struck sail and camped.
Altogether, the day's run was thirty-five miles.

An hour's march next morning, and, through the glasses, we saw the mast
and soon afterwards the hut. Just before reac