ing.

Meantime we lunched, and afterwards struck a bad patch of surface which
caused us frequent stops. We reached Hut Point at 8 p.m. after stopping
the motors near Cape Armitage, and spent the night in the Hut there,
camping with Scott's party, Meares and Dimitri.

The motor engines were certainly good in moderate temperatures, but our
slow advance was due to the chains slipping on hard ice. Scott was
concerned, but he made it quite clear that if we got our loads clear of
the Strait between White Island and Ross Isle, he would be more than
satisfied.

Meares and Bowers cooked a fine seal fry for us all, and we spent a happy
evening at Hut Point. The Hut, thanks to Meares and Dimitri, was now, for
these latitudes, a regular Mayfair dwelling. The blubber stove was now a
bricked-in furnace, with substantial chimney, and hot plates, with
cooking space sufficient for our needs, however many, were being
accommodated.

On October 27 I woke the cooks at 6.30 a.m., and we breakfasted about 8
o'clock, then went up to the motors off Cape Armitage. Lashly's car got
away and did about three miles with practically no stop. Our carburettor
continually got cold, and we stopped a good deal. Eventually about 1 p.m.
we passed Lashly's car and made our way up a gentle slope on to the
Barrier, waved to the party, and went on about three-quarters of a mile.

Here we waited for Lashly and Hooper, who came up at 2.30, having had
much trouble with their engine, due to overheating, we thought. When
Day's car glided from the sea ice, over the tide crack and on to the
Great Ice Barrier itself, Scott and his party cheered wildly, and Day
acknowledged their applause with a boyish smile of triumph. As soon as
Lashly got on to the Barrier, Scott took his party away and they returned
to Cape Evans. It would have been a disappointment to them if they had
known that we shortly afterwards heard an ominous rattle, which turned
out to be the big end brass of one of the connecting rods churning
up--due to a bad casting.

Luckily we had a spare, which Day and Lashly fitted, while Hooper and I
went on with the 10 ft. sledge to Safety Camp.

Here we dug out our provisions according to instructions and brought them
back to our camp to avoid further delay in repacking sledges. We then
made Day and Lashly some tea to warm them up. They worked nobly and had
the car ready by 11 p.m. We pushed on till midnight in our anxiety to
acquit ourselves and our moto