At the end of the
second day we got among very bad crevasses through keeping too far to
the eastward. This delayed us slightly and we made the depot on the
third day. We reached the Lower Glacier Depot three and a half days
after. The lower part of the glacier was very badly crevassed. These
crevasses we had never seen on the way up, as they had been covered
with three to four feet of snow. All the bridges of crevasses were
concave and very wide; no doubt their normal summer condition. On
Christmas Day we made in to the lateral moraine of the Cloudmaker and
collected geological specimens. The march across the Barrier was only
remarkable for the extremely bad lights we had. For eight consecutive
days we only saw an exceedingly dim sun during three hours. Up to One
Ton Depot our marches had averaged 14.1 geographical miles a day. We
arrived at Cape Evans on January 28, 1912, after being away for three
months. [E.L.A.]
_Note_ 24, _p_. 364.--_January_ 3. Return of the second supporting
party.
Under average conditions, the return party should have well fulfilled
Scott's cheery anticipations. Three-man teams had done excellently
on previous sledging expeditions, whether in _Discovery_ days
or as recently as the mid-winter visit to the Emperor penguins'
rookery; and the three in this party were seasoned travellers
with a skilled navigator to lead them. But a blizzard held them
up for three days before reaching the head of the glacier.
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