In fact Atkinson has really no very clear idea of what happened to him after he missed the Cape.  He seems to have wandered aimlessly up wind till he hit an island; he walked all round this; says he couldn’t see a yard at this time; fell often into the tide crack; finally stopped under the lee of some rocks; here got his hand frostbitten owing to difficulty of getting frozen mit on again, finally got it on; started to dig a hole to wait in.  Saw something of the moon and left the island; lost the moon and wanted to go back; could find nothing; finally stumbled on another island, perhaps the same one; waited again, again saw the moon, now clearing; shaped some sort of course by it—­then saw flare on Cape and came on rapidly—­says he shouted to someone on Cape quite close to him, greatly surprised not to get an answer.  It is a rambling tale to-night and a half thawed brain.  It is impossible to listen to such a tale without appreciating that it has been a close escape or that there would have been no escape had the blizzard continued.  The thought that it would return after a short lull was amongst the worst with me during the hours of waiting.

2 A.M.—­The search parties have returned and all is well again, but we must have no more of these very unnecessary escapades.  Yet it is impossible not to realise that this bit of experience has done more than all the talking I could have ever accomplished to bring home to our people the dangers of a blizzard.

Wednesday, July 5.—­Atkinson has a bad hand to-day, immense blisters on every finger giving them the appearance of sausages.  To-night Ponting has photographed the hand.

As I expected, some amendment of Atkinson’s tale as written last night is necessary, partly due to some lack of coherency in the tale as first told and partly a reconsideration of the circumstances by Atkinson himself.

It appears he first hit Inaccessible Island, and got his hand frostbitten before he reached it.  It was only on arrival in its lee that he discovered the frostbite.  He must have waited there some time, then groped his way to the western end thinking he was near the Ramp.  Then wandering away in a swirl of drift to clear some irregularities at the ice foot, he completely lost the island when he could only have been a few yards from it.

He seems in this predicament to have clung to the old idea of walking up wind, and it must be considered wholly providential that on this course he next struck Tent Island.  It was round this island that he walked, finally digging himself a shelter on its lee side under the impression that it was Inaccessible Island.  When the moon appeared he seems to have judged its bearing well, and as he travelled homeward he was much surprised to see the real Inaccessible Island appear on his left.  The distance of Tent Island, 4 to 5 miles, partly accounts for the time he took in returning.  Everything goes to confirm the fact that he had a very close shave of being lost altogether.