“Misfortunes rarely come singly.  We marched to the [Middle Barrier] depot fairly easily yesterday afternoon, and since that have suffered three distinct blows which have placed us in a bad position.  First, we found a shortage of oil; with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to the next depot on this surface [71 miles away].  Second, Titus Oates disclosed his feet, the toes showing very bad indeed, evidently bitten by the late temperatures.  The third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather.  It fell below -40 deg. in the night, and this morning it took 11/2 hours to get our foot-gear on, but we got away before eight.  We lost cairn and tracks together and made as steady as we could N. by W., but have seen nothing.  Worse was to come—­the surface is simply awful.  In spite of strong wind and full sail we have only done 51/2 miles.  We are in a very queer street, since there is no doubt we cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly."[346]

They did nearly ten miles that day, but on March 3 they had a terrible time.  “God help us,” wrote Scott, “we can’t keep up this pulling, that is certain.  Amongst ourselves we are unendingly cheerful, but what each man feels in his heart I can only guess.  Putting on foot-gear in the morning is getting slower and slower, therefore every day more dangerous.”

The following extracts are taken from Scott’s diary.

“March 4.  Lunch. We are in a very tight place indeed, but none of us despondent yet, or at least we preserve every semblance of good cheer, but one’s heart sinks as the sledge stops dead at some sastrugi behind which the surface sand lies thickly heaped.  For the moment the temperature is in the -20 deg.—­an improvement which makes us much more comfortable, but a colder snap is bound to come again soon.  I fear that Oates at least will weather such an event very poorly.  Providence to our aid!  We can expect little from man now except the possibility of extra food at the next depot.  It will be real bad if we get there and find the same shortage of oil.  Shall we get there?  Such a short distance it would have appeared to us on the summit!  I don’t know what I should do if Wilson and Bowers weren’t so determinedly cheerful over things.”

[Illustration:  MOUNT LONGSTAFF—­E.  A. Wilson, del.  Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.]

“Monday, March 5.  Lunch. Regret to say going from bad to worse.  We got a slant of wind yesterday afternoon, and going on 5 hours we converted our wretched morning run of 31/2 miles into something over 9.  We went to bed on a cup of cocoa and pemmican solid with the chill off....  The result is telling on all, but mainly on Oates, whose feet are in a wretched condition.  One swelled up tremendously last night and he is very lame this morning.  We started march on tea and pemmican as last night—­we pretend to prefer the