P.O.  Evans was away first with Crean, Keohane, and Demetri, a light sledge, a sleeping-bag, and a flask of brandy.  His orders were to search the edge of the land and glacier through the sweep of the Bay to the Barne Glacier and to Cape Barne beyond, then to turn east along an open crack and follow it to Inaccessible Island.  Evans (Lieut.), with Nelson, Forde, and Hooper, left shortly after, similarly equipped, to follow the shore of the South Bay in similar fashion, then turn out to the Razor Back and search there.  Next Wright, Gran, and Lashly set out for the bergs to look thoroughly about them and from thence pass round and examine Inaccessible Island.  After these parties got away, Meares and Debenham started with a lantern to search to and fro over the surface of our promontory.  Simpson and Oates went out in a direct line over the Northern floe to the ‘Archibald’ thermometer, whilst Ponting and Taylor re-examined the tide crack towards the Barne Glacier.  Meanwhile Day went to and fro Wind Vane Hill to light at intervals upon its crest bundles of tow well soaked in petrol.  At length Clissold and I were left alone in the hut, and as the hours went by I grew ever more alarmed.  It was impossible for me to conceive how an able man could have failed to return to the hut before this or by any means found shelter in such clothing in such weather.  Atkinson had started for a point a little more than a mile away; at 10.30 he had been five hours away; what conclusion could be drawn?  And yet I felt it most difficult to imagine an accident on open floe with no worse pitfall than a shallow crack or steep-sided snow drift.  At least I could feel that every spot which was likely to be the scene of such an accident would be searched.  Thus 11 o’clock came without change, then 11.30 with its 6 hours of absence.  But at 11.45 I heard voices from the Cape, and presently the adventure ended to my extreme relief when Meares and Debenham led our wanderer home.  He was badly frostbitten in the hand and less seriously on the face, and though a good deal confused, as men always are on such occasions, he was otherwise well.

His tale is confused, but as far as one can gather he did not go more than a quarter of a mile in the direction of the thermometer screen before he decided to turn back.  He then tried to walk with the wind a little on one side on the bearing he had originally observed, and after some time stumbled on an old fish trap hole, which he knew to be 200 yards from the Cape.  He made this 200 yards in the direction he supposed correct, and found nothing.  In such a situation had he turned east he must have hit the land somewhere close to the hut and so found his way to it.  The fact that he did not, but attempted to wander straight on, is clear evidence of the mental condition caused by that situation.  There can be no doubt that in a blizzard a man has not only to safeguard the circulation in his limbs, but must struggle with a sluggishness of brain and an absence of reasoning power which is far more likely to undo him.