Tuesday, January 30.—­R. 13. 9860.  Lunch Temp.-25 deg., Supper Temp. -24.5 deg..  Thank the Lord, another fine march—­19 miles.  We have passed the last cairn before the depot, the track is clear ahead, the weather fair, the wind helpful, the gradient down—­with any luck we should pick up our depot in the middle of the morning march.  This is the bright side; the reverse of the medal is serious.  Wilson has strained a tendon in his leg; it has given pain all day and is swollen to-night.  Of course, he is full of pluck over it, but I don’t like the idea of such an accident here.  To add to the trouble Evans has dislodged two finger-nails to-night; his hands are really bad, and to my surprise he shows signs of losing heart over it.  He hasn’t been cheerful since the accident.  The wind shifted from S.E. to S. and back again all day, but luckily it keeps strong.  We can get along with bad fingers, but it (will be) a mighty serious thing if Wilson’s leg doesn’t improve.

Wednesday, January 31.—­9800.  Lunch Temp. -20 deg., Supper Temp. -20 deg..  The day opened fine with a fair breeze; we marched on the depot, [39] picked it up, and lunched an hour later.  In the afternoon the surface became fearfully bad, the wind dropped to light southerly air.  Ill luck that this should happen just when we have only four men to pull.  Wilson rested his leg as much as possible by walking quietly beside the sledge; the result has been good, and to-night there is much less inflammation.  I hope he will be all right again soon, but it is trying to have an injured limb in the party.  I see we had a very heavy surface here on our outward march.  There is no doubt we are travelling over undulations, but the inequality of level does not make a great difference to our pace; it is the sandy crystals that hold us up.  There has been very great alteration of the surface since we were last here—­the sledge tracks stand high.  This afternoon we picked up Bowers’ ski [40]—­the last thing we have to find on the summit, thank Heaven!  Now we have only to go north and so shall welcome strong winds.

Thursday, February 1.—­R. 15. 9778.  Lunch Temp. -20 deg., Supper Temp. -19.8 deg..  Heavy collar work most of the day.  Wind light.  Did 8 miles, 4 3/4 hours.  Started well in the afternoon and came down a steep slope in quick time; then the surface turned real bad—­sandy drifts—­very heavy pulling.  Working on past 8 P.M. we just fetched a lunch cairn of December 29, when we were only a week out from the depot. [41] It ought to be easy to get in with a margin, having 8 days’ food in hand (full feeding).  We have opened out on the 1/7th increase and it makes a lot of difference.  Wilson’s leg much better.  Evans’ fingers now very bad, two nails coming off, blisters burst.