id; five miles six
hundred and ten yards, on April 2. On that and the following day it was
fortunate that the road chosen was free of crevasses.

At the foot of the hills I had decided to reduce the rations but, as the
track had grown firm once more, and we were only twenty-five miles from
the hut, with a week's food, I thought it would be safe to use the full
allowance.

Soon after leaving the hills (April 4), a direct course to the hut was
made. There was no mark by which to steer, except a "water-sky" to the
north, the hinterland being clouded over. During the afternoon, the sun
occasionally gleamed through a tract of cirro-stratus cloud and there
was a very fine parhelion: signs of an approaching blizzard. At 4.30
P.M. we had done seventeen and a half miles, and, as all hands were
fresh and willing, I decided to have a meal and go on again, considering
that the moon was full and there were only six miles to be done.

After supper the march was continued till 8.30 P.M., by which time we
were due for a rest. I had begun to think that we had passed the hut.

April 5 was far from being a Good Friday for us. At 2 A.M. a fresh
breeze rose and rapidly increased to a heavy gale. At 10 A.M. Hoadley
and I had to go out to secure the tent; the weather-side bulged in more
than half the width of the tent and was held by a solid load of drift,
but the other sides were flapping so much that almost all the snow had
been shaken off the skirt. Though only five yards away from it we could
not see the other tent. At noon Hoadley again went out to attend to the
tent and entirely lost himself within six feet of it. He immediately
started to yell and I guessed what was the matter at once. Dovers and I
shouted our best, and Hoadley groped his way in with a mask of snow over
his face. He told us that the wind which was then blowing a good eighty
miles an hour, knocked him down immediately he was outside, and, when
he struggled to his feet again, he could see nothing and had no idea in
what direction lay the tent.

The space inside was now so limited by the combined pressure of wind and
snow that we did not light the primus, eating lumps of frozen pemmican
for the evening meal.

The blizzard continued with unabated violence until eleven o'clock next
morning, when it moderated within an hour to half a gale. We turned out
and had a good hot meal. Then we looked to see how the others had fared
and found that their tent had collapsed. Gett