e Evans on January 28. They had some sickness in the shape of
enteritis and slight scurvy, but Dr. Atkinson's care and medical
knowledge brought them through safely. Captain Scott with his two sledge
teams now pushed forward, keeping an average speed of 15 miles per day,
with full loads of 190 lb. a man.

When we started off we were:

Scott. Self.
Wilson. Bowers.
Oates. Crean.
Seaman Evans Lashly.

We steered S.W. to begin with to avoid the great pressure ridges and ice
falls which barred our way to the South. We began to rise very
perceptibly, and, looking back after our march, realised what enormous
frozen falls stretch across the top of the Beardmore. I noted that these,
with Scott's consent should be called "The Shackleton Ice Falls,"
according to _his_ track he went _up_ them. When we looked back on
starting our march we could see the depot cairn with a black flag tied to
a pair of 10 foot sledge runners for quite three miles--it promised well
for picking up. Next day we were away early, marching 8 1/2 miles to
lunch camp, and getting amongst crevasses as big as Regent Street, all
snow bridged.

We rushed these and had no serious falls; the dangerous part is at the
edge of the snow bridge, and we frequently fell through up to our armpits
just stepping on to or leaving the bridge. We began now to experience the
same tingling wind that Shackleton speaks of, and men's noses were
frequently frost-bitten. On Christmas Eve we were 8000 feet above the
Barrier, and we imagined we were clear of crevasses and pressure ridges.
We now felt the cold far more when marching than we had done on the
Beardmore.

The wind all the time turned our breath into cakes of ice on our beards.
Taking sights when we stopped was a bitterly cold job: fingers had to be
bared to work the little theodolite screws, and in the biting wind one's
finger-tips soon went. Over 16 miles were laid behind us on Christmas Eve
when we reached Latitude 85 degrees 35 minutes S., Longitude 159 degrees
8 minutes E. I obtained the variation of the compass here--179 degrees 35
minutes E., so that we were between the Magnetic and Geographical Poles.

The temperature down to 10 degrees below zero made observing unpleasant,
when one had cooled down and lost vitality at the end of the day's march.

Christmas Day, 1911, found our two tiny green tents pitched on the Ki