The Worst Journey in the World - Apsley Cherry-Garrard (online e reader .txt) 📗

and oedematous over the shin. But we made a very fine march with the help of a brisk breeze.”

January 31:

“Again walking by the sledge with swollen leg but not nearly so painful. We had 5.8 miles to go to reach our Three Degree Depot. Picked this up with a week’s provision and a line from Evans, and then for lunch an extra biscuit each, making 4 for lunch and ⅒ whack of butter extra as well. Afternoon we passed cairn where Birdie’s ski had been left. These we picked up and came on till 7:30 p.m. when the wind which had been very light all day dropped, and with temp. −20° it felt delightfully warm and sunny and clear. We have ⅒ extra pemmican in the hoosh now also. My leg pretty swollen again tonight.”326 They travelled 13.5 miles that day, and 15.7 on the next. “My leg much more comfortable, gave me no pain, and I was able to pull all day, holding on to the sledge. Still some oedema. We came down a hundred feet or so today on a fairly steep gradient.”327

They were now approaching the crevassed surfaces and the icefalls which mark the entrance to the Beardmore Glacier, and February 2 was marked by another accident, this time to Scott.

“On a very slippery surface I came an awful ‘purler’ on my shoulder. It is horribly sore tonight and another sick person added to our tent⁠—three out of five injured, and the most troublesome surfaces to come. We shall be lucky if we get through without serious injury. Wilson’s leg is better, but might easily get bad again, and Evans’ fingers.⁠ ⁠… We have managed to get off 17 miles. The extra food is certainly helping us, but we are getting pretty hungry. The weather is already a trifle warmer, the altitude lower and only 80 miles or so to Mount Darwin. It is time we were off the summit.⁠—Pray God another four days will see us pretty well clear of it. Our bags are getting very wet and we ought to have more sleep.”328

They had been spending some time in finding the old tracks. But they had a good landfall for the depot at the top of the glacier and on February 3 they decided to push on due north, and to worry no more for the present about tracks and cairns. They did 16 miles that day. Wilson’s diary runs:

“Sunny and breezy again. Came down a series of slopes, and finished the day by going up one. Enormous deep-cut sastrugi and drifts and shiny eggshell surface. Wind all S. S. E.ly. Today at about 11 p.m. we got our first sight again of mountain peaks on our eastern horizon.⁠ ⁠… We crossed the outmost line of crevassed ridge top today, the first on our return.

Buckley Island⁠—Where the Fossils Were Found.

“February 4. 18 miles. Clear cloudless blue sky, surface drift. During forenoon we came down gradual descent including 2 or 3 irregular terrace slopes, on crest of one of which were a good many crevasses. Southernmost were just big enough for Scott and Evans to fall in to their waists, and very deceptively covered up. They ran east and west. Those nearer the crest were the ordinary broad street-like crevasses, well lidded. In the afternoon we again came to a crest, before descending, with street crevasses, and one we crossed had a huge hole where the lid had fallen in, big enough for a horse and cart to go down. We have a great number of mountain tops on our right and south of our beam as we go due north now. We are now camped just below a great crevassed mound, on a mountain top evidently.”

“February 5. 18.2 miles. We had a difficult day, getting in amongst a frightful chaos of broad chasm-like crevasses. We kept too far east and had to wind in and out amongst them and cross multitudes of bridges. We then bore west a bit and got on better all the afternoon and got round a good deal of the upper disturbances of the falls here.”

[Scott wrote: “We are camped in a very disturbed region, but the wind has fallen very light here, and our camp is comfortable for the first time for many weeks.”329]

“February 6. 15 miles. We again had a forenoon of trying to cut corners. Got in amongst great chasms running E. and W. and had to come out again. We then again kept west and downhill over tremendous sastrugi, with a slight breeze, very cold. In afternoon continued bearing more and more towards Mount Darwin: we got round one of the main lines of icefall and looked back up to it.⁠ ⁠… Very cold march: many crevasses: I walking by the sledge on foot found a good many: the others all on ski.”

“February 7. 15.5 miles. Clear day again and we made a tedious march in the forenoon along a flat or two, and down a long slope: and then in the afternoon we had a very fresh breeze, and very fast run down long slopes covered with big sastrugi. It was a strenuous job steering and checking behind by the sledge. We reached the Upper Glacier Depot by 7:30 p.m. and found everything right.”330

This was the end of the plateau: the beginning of the glacier. Their hard time should be over so far as the weather was concerned. Wilson notes how fine the land looked as they approached it: “The colour of the Dominion Range rock is in the main all brown madder or dark reddish chocolate, but there are numerous bands of yellow rock scattered amongst it. I think it is composed of dolerite and sandstone as on the W. side.”331

The condition of the party was