The fog lifted, and the surface looked a little broken.  The imaginary land lasted till the next day, when we found out that it had only been a descending bank of fog.  That day we put on the pace, and did twenty-five miles instead of our usual seventeen.  We were very lightly clad.  There could be no question of skins; they were laid aside at once.  Very light wind-clothing was all we wore over our underclothes.  On this journey most of us slept barelegged in the sleeping-bags.  Next day we were surprised by brilliantly clear weather and a dead calm.  For the first time we had a good view.  Towards the south the Barrier seemed to continue, smooth and even, without ascending.  Towards the east, on the other hand, there was a marked rise —­ presumably towards King Edward VII.  Land, we thought then.  In the course of the afternoon we passed the first fissure we had met with.  It had apparently been filled up long ago.  Our distance that day was twenty-three miles.

On these depot journeys we were always very glad of our Thermos flasks.  In the middle of the day we made a halt, and took a cup of scalding hot chocolate, and it was very pleasant to be able to get one without any trouble in the middle of the snow plateau.  On the final southern journey we did not take Thermos flasks.  We had no lunch then.

On February 14, after a march of eleven and a half miles, we reached 80deg.  S. Unfortunately we did not succeed in getting any astronomical observation on this trip, as the theodolite we had brought with us went wrong, but later observations on several occasions gave 79deg. 59’ S. Not so bad in fog.  We had marked out the route up to this point with bamboo poles and flags at every 15 kilometres.  Now, as we had not fixed the position by astronomical observation, we found that the flags would not be sufficient, and we had to look for some other means of marking the spot.  A few empty cases were broken up and gave a certain number of marks, but not nearly enough.  Then our eyes fell upon a bundle of dried fish lying on one of the sledges, and our marking pegs were found.  I should like to know whether any road has been marked out with dried fish before; I doubt it.  Immediately on our arrival in lat. 80deg. —­ at eleven in the morning —­ we began to erect the depot.  It was made quite solid, and was 12 feet high.  The going here in 80deg. was quite different from what we had had all the rest of the way.  Deep, loose snow every-where gave us the impression that it must have fallen in perfectly still weather.  Generally when we passed by here —­ but not always —­ we found this loose snow.