red yards, I floundered on hour after hour, until, on
arriving at a high point, I saw a little shining mound standing up on
a higher point, a good mile to the east. After seven hours' wading I
reached it and found that it was the depot.

Two feet of the original eight-foot mound projected above the surface,
with the bamboo pole and a wire-and-canvas flag rising another eighteen
inches. On this, a high isolated mountain summit, six feet of snow had
actually accumulated. How thankful I was that I had brought a shovel!

At seven feet I "bottomed" on the hard snow, without result. Then,
running a tunnel in the most probable direction, I struck with the
shovel the kerosene tin which was on the top of the food-bag. On opening
the bag, the first items to appear were sugar, butter and biscuits; the
next quarter of an hour I shall not forget!

I made a swag of five days' provisions, and, taking a direct route,
attacked the three miles downhill in lengths of one hundred and fifty
yards. Coming in sight of the tent, I called to my companions to thaw
some water for a drink. So slow was progress that I could speak to them
a quarter of an hour before reaching the tent. I had been away eleven
and a half hours, covering about seven miles in all.

McLean and Correll were getting anxious about me. They said that they
had felt the cold and were unable to sleep. Soon I had produced the
pemmican and biscuit, and a scalding hoosh was made. The other two
had had only a mug of penguin broth each in three days, and I had only
broken my fast a few hours before them.

After the meal, McLean and Correll started back to the cache, two
miles down the gully, to select some of the geological and biological
specimens and to fetch a few articles of clothing. The instruments,
the greater part of the collection of rocks, crampons, sledge-meter and
other odds and ends were all left behind. Coming back with the loads
slung like swags they found that by walking in their old footsteps they
made fair progress.

By 8 P.M. all had rested, every unnecessary fitting had been stripped
off the sledge and the climb to the depot commenced. I went ahead in my
old trail, Correll also making use of it; while McLean broke a track for
himself. The work was slow and heavy; nearly six hours were spent doing
those three miles.

It was a lovely evening; the yellow sun drifting through orange
cloudlets behind Aurora Peak. We were in a more appreciative mood than
on the