uard the circulation in his limbs, but must struggle
with a sluggishness of brain and an absence of reasoning power which
is far more likely to undo him.

In fact Atkinson has really no very clear idea of what happened to him
after he missed the Cape. He seems to have wandered aimlessly up wind
till he hit an island; he walked all round this; says he couldn't
see a yard at this time; fell often into the tide crack; finally
stopped under the lee of some rocks; here got his hand frostbitten
owing to difficulty of getting frozen mit on again, finally got it on;
started to dig a hole to wait in. Saw something of the moon and left
the island; lost the moon and wanted to go back; could find nothing;
finally stumbled on another island, perhaps the same one; waited
again, again saw the moon, now clearing; shaped some sort of course
by it--then saw flare on Cape and came on rapidly--says he shouted to
someone on Cape quite close to him, greatly surprised not to get an
answer. It is a rambling tale to-night and a half thawed brain. It is
impossible to listen to such a tale without appreciating that it has
been a close escape or that there would have been no escape had the
blizzard continued. The thought that it would return after a short
lull was amongst the worst with me during the hours of waiting.

2 A.M.--The search parties have returned and all is well again, but
we must have no more of these very unnecessary escapades. Yet it is
impossible not to realise that this bit of experience has done more
than all the talking I could have ever accomplished to bring home to
our people the dangers of a blizzard.

_Wednesday, July_ 5.--Atkinson has a bad hand to-day, immense blisters
on every finger giving them the appearance of sausages. To-night
Ponting has photographed the hand.

As I expected, some amendment of Atkinson's tale as written last
night is necessary, partly due to some lack of coherency in the tale
as first told and partly a reconsideration of the circumstances by
Atkinson himself.

It appears he first hit Inaccessible Island, and got his hand
frostbitten before he reached it. It was only on arrival in its lee
that he discovered the frostbite. He must have waited there some
time, then groped his way to the western end thinking he was near
the Ramp. Then wandering away in a swirl of drift to clear some
irregularities at the ice foot, he completely lost the island when
he could only have been a few yards from it.