till 7.30 P.M. when the wind which had been very light all day dropped, and with temp. -20 deg. it felt delightfully warm and sunny and clear.  We have 1/10 extra pemmican in the hoosh now also.  My leg pretty swollen again to-night."[326] They travelled 13.5 miles that day, and 15.7 on the next.  “My leg much more comfortable, gave me no pain, and I was able to pull all day, holding on to the sledge.  Still some oedema.  We came down a hundred feet or so to-day on a fairly steep gradient."[327]

They were now approaching the crevassed surfaces and the ice-falls which mark the entrance to the Beardmore Glacier, and February 2 was marked by another accident, this time to Scott.  “On a very slippery surface I came an awful ‘purler’ on my shoulder.  It is horribly sore to-night and another sick person added to our tent—­three out of five injured, and the most troublesome surfaces to come.  We shall be lucky if we get through without serious injury.  Wilson’s leg is better, but might easily get bad again, and Evans’ fingers....  We have managed to get off 17 miles.  The extra food is certainly helping us, but we are getting pretty hungry.  The weather is already a trifle warmer, the altitude lower and only 80 miles or so to Mount Darwin.  It is time we were off the summit.—­Pray God another four days will see us pretty well clear of it.  Our bags are getting very wet and we ought to have more sleep."[328]

They had been spending some time in finding the old tracks.  But they had a good landfall for the depot at the top of the glacier and on February 3 they decided to push on due north, and to worry no more for the present about tracks and cairns.  They did 16 miles that day.  Wilson’s diary runs:  “Sunny and breezy again.  Came down a series of slopes, and finished the day by going up one.  Enormous deep-cut sastrugi and drifts and shiny egg-shell surface.  Wind all S.S.E.ly.  To-day at about 11 P.M. we got our first sight again of mountain peaks on our eastern horizon....  We crossed the outmost line of crevassed ridge top to-day, the first on our return.

[Illustration:  BUCKLEY ISLAND—­Where The Fossils Were Found.]

“February 4. 18 miles.  Clear cloudless blue sky, surface drift.  During forenoon we came down gradual descent including 2 or 3 irregular terrace slopes, on crest of one of which were a good many crevasses.  Southernmost were just big enough for Scott and Evans to fall in to their waists, and very deceptively covered up.  They ran east and west.  Those nearer the crest were the ordinary broad street-like crevasses, well lidded.  In the afternoon we again came to a crest, before descending, with street crevasses, and one we crossed had a huge hole where the lid had fallen in, big enough for a horse and cart to go down.  We have a great number of mountain tops on our right and south of our beam as we go due north now.  We are now camped just below a great crevassed mound, on a mountain top evidently.”