To help us Meares and the Russian dog-boy had travelled farther South than their return rations allowed for, and for the 450 mile Northward march to Cape Evans the two of them went short one meal a day rather than deplete the depots.  It is a dreadful thing on an Antarctic sledge journey to forfeit a whole meal daily, and Meares’s generosity should not be forgotten.

The advance of Scott’s men up the Beardmore was retarded considerably by the deep, wet snow which had accumulated in the lower reaches of the Glacier.

Panting and sweating we could only make 4 mile marches until the 13th December, and even then the soft snow was 18 inches deep.  On the 14th we made a good 9 miles, but only by dint of our utmost efforts—­we worked on ski, and I tremble to think what we should have done here without them.  The aneroids gave us a rise of about 500 feet a day.  Things were improving now, and on December 15 we passed the 84 degree parallel—­about this time we succeeded in covering 9 to 10 miles daily, and to do this we marched that same number of hours.  A good deal of snow covering the mountain ranges, but some remarkable outcrops of rock to vary the scenery.  The temperature was very high, and we were punished severely on this account, for the snow was like beef dripping, and we flopped about in it and hove our sledges along with no glide whatever to help us move forward.  Such panting, puffing, and sweating, but all in good humour and bent on doing our best.  Snowing hard in the latter part of the afternoon just as the surface was improving—­we were forced to camp before the proper time on this account.  On camping we calculated that we were 2500 feet above the Barrier, the surface promising better things, for there was hard blue ice six inches from the surface, and the snow itself was fairly close-packed and good for ski.

On December 16 we were out of our sleeping bags at 5 and we were under way by 7 a.m., marching till noon, when we lunched and took sights and angles.  The surface remained fairly good until 2 p.m., when it took an unaccountable turn for the worse.  We covered 12 miles.

Several of us dropped a leg down crevasses here and there, nothing alarming.  We reached 3000 feet altitude, and the day ended in the most perfect weather.  For the first time since leaving Corner Camp we felt that our ration was sufficient; we had now commenced the “Summit ration,” which contained considerable extra fats.  Snow-blindness caused trouble here and there, due principally to our removing our goggles when they clouded up—­due to sweating so much in the high temperature.  The goggles, which Wilson was responsible for, served excellently.  Yellow and orange glasses were popular, but some preferred green.  As we progressed and our eyes had to be used for long periods without glasses for clearing crevasses, etc., we found that a double glass acted best, and used this whenever the going was easy and goggles could be used.