ard were dispelled. We
feared for the safety of the tent, knowing that if it had gone during
that 'blow' our hopes of getting back to the Hut would have been small.

"The wind continued all day and the next night, but, to our joy, abated
on the 21st to fifty miles an hour, permitting us to travel.

"Through a seventy-five-miler on the 22nd and a quieter day on the 23rd,
we picked up our half-way mound at Birthday Camp on September 24. On
the same night the long-suffering sledge-meter, much battered, gave up
recording.

"At 3 A.M. I was awakened by something striking me on the head. I looked
out of the sleeping-bag and found that the tent had fallen in on us. The
lashing at the apex had carried away and the poles upwind were almost
flat. The cap was gone, and one side of the tent was split from top to
bottom. I awakened the others, and Whetter and I got out, leaving Close
inside to hang on to the bag. Luckily we had kept on our burberrys in
case of accidents. For once the entrance had not to be unfastened, as
there was a ready-made exit. The poles were roughly bound together
with an alpine rope and anchored to a pick on the windward side. It was
blowing about eighty miles an hour, but fortunately there was no drift.
When daylight came the tent was found to be hopelessly ruined, and
to light the primus was impossible, though the wind had abated to
thirty-five miles an hour.

"We ate some frozen food and pushed on, hoping to find Aladdin's Cave
before dark, so that we should not have to spend a night without a tent.
After a struggle of thirteen miles over rough ice we came, footsore and
worn out, to Aladdin's Cave. Close's feet were badly blistered, and both
my big toes had become frost-bitten at the fifty-mile camp, giving me a
good deal of trouble on the way back.

"Never was the Cave a more luxurious place. The cooker was kept busy far
into the night, while we drank and smoked and felt happy."

The successful conclusion of this journey in the face of the most
adverse weather conditions was something upon which Madigan, Whetter and
Close could well feel proud, for in its way it must be a record in the
sledging world. They were indeed badly frost-bitten; Madigan's great
toes having suffered most of all. Whetter's chief injury was a wound
under the chin occasioned by a pair of scissors handled by Madigan to
free Whetter's helmet on an occasion when it was firmly frozen to his
face.

On October 1, Mertz, Hurley and