ay along to overtake the
motors, Amundsen and his Polar party were beyond the 80th parallel,
forcing their way Southward and hourly increasing their distance from us
and from Captain Scott, who had not even started. Yes, Amundsen was over
150 miles farther South, and his sledge runners were slithering over the
snow, casting its powdered particles aside in beautiful little clouds
while I was rapidly overhauling the motors with their labouring, sorely
taxed custodians, Day, Lashly, and Hooper. It seems very cruel to say
this, but there's no good in shutting one's eyes to Truth, however
unpleasantly clad she may be. I caught the motors late in the afternoon
after running nine miles; they had only done three miles whilst I had
been doing fifteen. We continued crawling along with our loads, stopping
to cool the engines every few minutes, it seemed, but at 11 p.m. they
overheated to such an extent that we stopped for the night. I was fairly
done, but not too tired to enjoy the supper which Hooper cooked, with its
many luxuries produced by him. Hooper had informed Bowers of my birthday,
and obtained all kinds of good things, which we despatched huddled
together in our tents; for it was about 20 degrees below zero when we
turned in well after midnight.

We intentionally lay in our bags until 8.30 next morning, but didn't get
those dreadful motors to start until 10.45 a.m. Even then they only gave
a few sniffs before breaking down and stopping, so that we could not
advance perceptibly until 11.30. We had troubles all day, and were forced
to camp on account of Day's sledge giving out at 5 p.m.--we daren't stop
for lunch earlier, for once stopped one never could say when a re-start
could be made.

We depoted here four big tins of petrol and two drums of filtrate to
lighten load of Day's sledge. Started off at six and soon found that the
big end brass on No. 2 cylinder of this sledge had given out, so dropped
two more tins of petrol and a case of filtrate oils. We thereupon
continued at a snail's pace, until at 9.15 the connecting rod broke
through the piston. We decided to abandon this sledge, and made a depot
of the spare clothing, seal meat, Xmas fare, ski belonging to Atkinson
and Wright, and four heavy cases of dog biscuit. I left a note in a
conspicuous position on the depot, which we finished constructing at
midnight. We wasted no time in turning in.

The clouds were radiating from the S.E., a precursor of blizzard, we
fe