face to try and retreat; so we struggled on for hours to try and free ourselves, but everything seemed against us.  I was leading with a long trace so that I could get across some of the ridges when we thought it possible to get the sledge over without being dashed down into the fathomless pits each side of us which were too numerous to think of.  Often and often we saw openings where it was possible to drop the biggest ship afloat in and loose her.  This is what we have travelled over all day.  It has been a great strain on us all, and Mr. Evans is rather down and thinks he has led us into such a hole, but as we have told him it is no fault of his, as it is impossible for anyone coming down the glacier to see what is ahead of them, so we must be thankful that we are so far safe.  To-night we seem to be in a better place.  We have camped not being able to reach the depot, which we are certain is not far off.  Dont want many days like this.

[Illustration:  BELOW THE CLOUDMAKER]

    18th January 1912.

We started off all in good spirits trusting we should be able to reach the depot all in good time, but we had not got far before we came into pressure far worse than we were in yesterday.  My God! what a day this have been for us all.  I cannot describe what we really have to-day come through, no one could believe that we came through with safety, if we had only had a camera we could have obtained some photographs that would have surprised anyone living.  We travelled all day with very little food, as we are a day and a half overdue, but when we got clear, I can say “clear” now because I am dotting down this at the depot where we have arrived.  I had managed to keep behind just a small amount of biscuit and a drop of tea to liven us up to try and reach the depot, which we reached at 11 P.M. after one of the most trying days of my life.  Shall have reason to never forget the 17 and 18 of January, 1912.  To-night Mr. Evans is complaining of his eyes, more trouble ahead!

    19th January 1912.

After putting the depot in order and re-arranging things, we kicked off again for D. [Lower Glacier] Depot.  Mr. Evans’ eyes were very bad on starting this morning, but we made a pretty good start.  I picked some rock to-day which I intend to try and get back with, as it is the only chance we have had of getting any up to the present, and it seemed a funny thing:  the rock I got some pieces of looked as if someone before me had been chipping some off.  I wonder if it was the Doctor’s party, but we could not see any trace of their sledge, but we could account for that, as it was all blue ice and not likely to leave any marks behind.  After travelling for some distance we got on the same ridge as we ran along on the outward Journey and passed what we took to be the Doctor’s Xmas Camp.  We had not gone far past before we got into soft snow, so we decided to camp for lunch.  Mr. Evans’ eyes being