I’m inclined to think that the summit trouble will be mostly due to the chill falling on sunburned skins.  Even now one feels the cold strike directly one stops.  We get fearfully thirsty and chip up ice on the march, as well as drinking a great deal of water on halting.  Our fuel only just does it, but that is all we want, and we have a bit in hand for the summit.

The pulling this afternoon was fairly pleasant; at first over hard snow, and then on to pretty rough ice with surface snowfield cracks, bad for sledges, but ours promised to come through well.  We have worn our crampons all day and are delighted with them.  P.O.  Evans, the inventor of both crampons and ski shoes, is greatly pleased, and certainly we owe him much.  The weather is beginning to look dirty again, snow clouds rolling in from the east as usual.  I believe it will be overcast to-morrow.

Monday, December 18.—­Camp 40.  Lunch nearly 4000 feet above Barrier.  Overcast and snowing this morning as I expected, land showing on starboard hand, so, though it was gloomy and depressing, we could march, and did.  We have done our 8 stat. miles between 8.20 and 1 P.M.; at first fairly good surface; then the ice got very rugged with sword-cut splits.  We got on a slope which made matters worse.  I then pulled up to the left, at first without much improvement, but as we topped a rise the surface got much better and things look quite promising for the moment.  On our right we have now a pretty good view of the Adams Marshall and Wild Mountains and their very curious horizontal stratification.  Wright has found, amongst bits of wind-blown debris, an undoubted bit of sandstone and a bit of black basalt.  We must get to know more of the geology before leaving the glacier finally.  This morning all our gear was fringed with ice crystals which looked very pretty.

Afternoon.—­(Night camp No. 40, about 4500 above Barrier.  T. -11 deg..  Lat. about 84 deg. 34’.) After lunch got on some very rough stuff within a few hundred yards of pressure ridge.  There seemed no alternative, and we went through with it.  Later, the glacier opened out into a broad basin with irregular undulations, and we on to a better surface, but later on again this improvement nearly vanished, so that it has been hard going all day, but we have done a good mileage (over 14 stat.).  We are less than five days behind S. now.  There was a promise of a clearance about noon, but later more snow clouds drifted over from the east, and now it is snowing again.  We have scarcely caught a gimpse of the eastern side of the glacier all day.  The western side has not been clear enough to photograph at the halts.  It is very annoying, but I suppose we must be thankful when we can get our marches off.  Still sweating horribly on the march and very thirsty at the halts.