“Still blizzarding,” wrote Joyce again on the 21st.  “We are lying in pools of water made by our bodies through staying in the same place for such a long time.  I don’t know what we shall do if this does not ease.  It has been blowing continuously without a lull.  The food for to-day was one cup of pemmican amongst three of us, one biscuit each, and two cups of tea among the three.”  The kerosene was exhausted, but Richards improvised a lamp by pouring some spirit (intended for priming the oil-lamp) into a mug, lighting it, and holding another mug over it.  It took half an hour to heat a mug of melted snow in this way.  “Same old thing, no ceasing of this blizzard,” was Joyce’s note twenty-four hours later.  “Hardly any food left except tea and sugar.  Richards, Hayward, and I, after a long talk, decided to get under way to-morrow in any case, or else we shall be sharing the fate of Captain Scott and his party.  The other tent seems to be very quiet, but now and again we hear a burst of song from Wild, so they are in the land of the living.  We gave the dogs the last of their food to-night, so we shall have to push, as a great deal depends on them.”  Further quotations from Joyce’s diary tell their own story.

“February 23, Wednesday.—­About 11 o’clock saw a break in the clouds and the sun showing.  Decided to have the meal we kept for getting under way.  Sang out to the Skipper’s party that we should shift as soon as we had a meal.  I asked Wild, and found they had a bag of oatmeal, some Bovril cubes, one bag of chocolate, and eighteen biscuits, so they are much better off than we are.  After we had our meal we started to dig out our sledge, which we found right under.  It took us two hours, and one would hardly credit how weak we were.  Two digs of the shovel and we were out of breath.  This was caused through our lying up on practically no food.  After getting sledge out we took it around to the Skipper’s tent on account of the heavy sastrugi, which was very high.  Got under way about 2.20.  Had to stop very often on account of sail, etc.  About 3.20 the Skipper, who had tied himself to the rear of the sledge, found it impossible to proceed.  So after a consultation with Wild and party, decided to pitch their tent, leaving Wild to look after the Skipper and Spencer-Smith, and make the best of our way to the depot, which is anything up to twelve miles away.  So we made them comfortable and left them about 3.40.  I told Wild I should leave as much as possible and get back 26th or 27th, weather permitting, but just as we left them it came on to snow pretty hard, sun going in, and we found even with the four dogs we could not make more than one-half to three-quarters of a mile an hour.  The surface is so bad that sometimes you go in up to your waist; still in spite of all this we carried on until 6.35.  Camped in a howling blizzard.  I found my left foot badly frost-bitten.  Now after this march we came into our banquet—­one cup of tea and half a biscuit.  Turned in at 9 o’clock.  Situation does not look very cheerful.  This is really the worst surface I have ever come across in all my journeys here.”