ted of Captain Scott, Lashly,
Day and Dimitri with one tent and sledge, and Crean, Hooper, Nelson and
myself with the other. We had it fine as far as the Glacier Tongue; and
then along came the cheery old south wind in our faces; we crossed the
Tongue and struggled against this till we could camp under the Hutton
Cliffs where we got some shelter. All of us had our faces frost-bitten,
the washing and shaving having made mine quite tender. It was a bit of a
job getting up the cliff: we had to stand on top of a pile of fallen ice
and hoist a 10-feet sledge on to our shoulders, at least on to the
shoulders of the tall ones; this just touched the overhanging cornice. A
cornice of snow is caused by continual drift over a sharp edge: it takes
all sorts of fantastic shapes, but usually hangs over like this. Looking
edgeways it looks as if it must fall down, but as a matter of fact is
usually very tough indeed. In this case steps were cut in it with an ice
axe from our extemporary ladder, and Captain Scott and I got up first.
With the aid of a rope and the ladder we got the light ones up first, and
hauled up the gear last of all; hanging the sledge from the top with one
rope enabled the last two to struggle up it assisted by a rope round them
from above. It was a cold job and more frost-bites occurred in two of our
novices, one on a foot and the other on a finger.

"We faced the blast again, but got it partially behind us on reaching the
Heights. We camped for the night under Castle Rock on an inclined slope.
It calmed down to a glorious night with a low temperature. Crean and I
lay head down hill to make Nelson and Hooper--who had never sledged
before--more comfortable. As a result Crean slipped half out of the tent
and let in a cold stream of air under the valance, for which I was at a
loss to account until the morning disclosed him thus, fast asleep of
course. It takes a lot to worry Captain Scott's coxswain.

"We arrived at Hut Point and had a great reception there, chiefly on
account of the food we brought, particularly the sugar. We had been
living on some paraffin sugar when I left before, and even this was
finished. The next day we stayed there to kill seals. Cherry and I
skinned one and then went for a walk round Cape Armitage. It was blowing
big guns off the cape, fairly fizzing in fact. We went as far as Pram
Point and then turned, coming in with it behind us. I only had a thin
balaclava and my ears were nearly nipped