[Illustration:  MT.  KYFFIN—­E.  A. Wilson, del.]

Wilson’s diary continues:  “February 15. 133/4 m. geog. I got on ski again first time since damaging my leg and was on them all day for 9 hours.  It was a bit painful and swelled by the evening, and every night I put on snow poultice.  We are not yet abreast of Mt.  Kyffin, and much discussion how far we are from the Lower Glacier Depot, probably 18 to 20 m.:  and we have to reduce food again, only one biscuit to-night with a thin hoosh of pemmican.  To-morrow we have to make one day’s food which remains last over the two.  The weather became heavily overcast during the afternoon and then began to snow, and though we got in our 4 hours’ march it was with difficulty, and we only made a bit over 5 miles.  However, we are nearer the depot to-night.”

“February 16. 121/2 m. geog. Got a good start in fair weather after one biscuit and a thin breakfast, and made 71/2 m. in the forenoon.  Again the weather became overcast and we lunched almost at our old bearing on Kyffin of lunch Dec. 15.  All the afternoon the weather became thick and thicker and after 31/4 hours Evans collapsed, sick and giddy, and unable to walk even by the sledge on ski, so we camped.  Can see no land at all anywhere, but we must be getting pretty near the Pillar Rock.  Evans’ collapse has much to do with the fact that he has never been sick in his life and is now helpless with his hands frost-bitten.  We had thin meals for lunch and supper.”

“February 17. The weather cleared and we got away for a clear run to the depot and had gone a good part of the way when Evans found his ski shoes coming off.  He was allowed to readjust and continue to pull, but it happened again, and then again, so he was told to unhitch, get them right, and follow on and catch us up.  He lagged far behind till lunch, and when we camped we had lunch, and then went back for him as he had not come up.  He had fallen and had his hands frost-bitten, and we then returned for the sledge, and brought it, and fetched him in on it as he was rapidly losing the use of his legs.  He was comatose when we got him into the tent, and he died without recovering consciousness that night about 10 P.M.  We had a short rest for an hour or two in our bags that night, then had a meal and came on through the pressure ridges about 4 miles farther down and reached our Lower Glacier Depot.  Here we camped at last, had a good meal and slept a good night’s rest which we badly needed.  Our depot was all right."[339] “A very terrible day....  On discussing the symptoms we think he began to get weaker just before we reached the Pole, and that his downward path was accelerated first by the shock of his frost-bitten fingers, and later by falls during rough travelling on the glacier, further by his loss of all confidence in himself.  Wilson thinks it certain he must have injured his brain by a fall.  It is a terrible thing to lose a companion in this way, but calm reflection shows that there could not have been a better ending to the terrible anxieties of the past week.  Discussion of the situation at lunch yesterday shows us what a desperate pass we were in with a sick man on our hands at such a distance from home."[340]