were stale.  Another that all was due to the bad stepping and want of swing; another that the sledge pulled heavy.  In the afternoon we exchanged sledges, and at first went off well, but getting into soft snow, we found a terrible drag, the second party coming quite easily with our sledge.  So the sledge is the cause of the trouble, and talking it out, I found that all is due to want of care.  The runners ran excellently, but the structure has been distorted by bad strapping, bad loading, this afternoon and only managed to get 12 miles (geo.).  The very hard pulling has occurred on two rises.  It appears that the loose snow is blown over the rises and rests in heaps on the north-facing slopes.  It is these heaps that cause our worst troubles.  The weather looks a little doubtful, a good deal of cirrus cloud in motion over us, radiating E. and W. The wind shifts from S.E. to S.S.W., rising and falling at intervals; it is annoying to the march as it retards the sledges, but it must help the surface, I think, and so hope for better things to-morrow.  The marches are terribly monotonous.  One’s thoughts wander occasionally to pleasanter scenes and places, but the necessity to keep the course, or some hitch in the surface, quickly brings them back.  There have been some hours of very steady plodding to-day; these are the best part of the business, they mean forgetfulness and advance.

Saturday, December 30.—­Bar. 20.42.  Lunch.  Night camp 52.  Bar. 20.36.  Rise about 150.  A very trying, tiring march, and only 11 miles (geo.) covered.  Wind from the south to S.E., not quite so strong as usual; the usual clear sky.

We camped on a rise last night, and it was some time before we reached the top this morning.  This took it out of us as the second party dropped.  I went on 6 l/2 miles (when the second party was some way astern) and lunched.  We came on in the afternoon, the other party still dropping, camped at 6.30—­they at 7.15.  We came up another rise with the usual gritty snow towards the end of the march.  For us the interval between the two rises, some 8 miles, was steady plodding work which we might keep up for some time.  To-morrow I’m going to march half a day, make a depot and build the 10-feet sledges.  The second party is certainly tiring; it remains to be seen how they will manage with the smaller sledge and lighter load.  The surface is certainly much worse than it was 50 miles back. (T. -10 deg..) We have caught up Shackleton’s dates.  Everything would be cheerful if I could persuade myself that the second party were quite fit to go forward.

Sunday, December 31.—­New Year’s Eve. 20.17.  Height about 9126.  T. -10 deg..  Camp 53.  Corrected Aneroid.  The second party depoted its ski and some other weights equivalent to about 100 lbs.  I sent them off first; they marched, but not very fast.  We followed and did not catch them before they camped by direction at 1.30.  By this time we had covered exactly 7 miles (geo.), and we must have risen a good deal.  We rose on a steep incline at the beginning of the march, and topped another at the end, showing a distance of about 5 miles between the wretched slopes which give us the hardest pulling, but as a matter of fact, we have been rising all day.