The storehouse next the galley had taken on a list of several degrees to starboard, and pools of water had formed everywhere.  They collected what food they could find and packed a few books in a venesta sledging-case, returning to Patience Camp by about 8 p.m.  I was pleased at their quick return, and as their report seemed to show that the road was favourable, on February 2 I sent back eighteen men under Wild to bring all the remainder of the food and the third boat, the ’Stancomb Wills’.  They started off at 1 a.m., towing the empty boat-sledge on which the ‘James Caird’ had rested, and reached Ocean Camp about 3.30 a.m.

“We stayed about three hours at the Camp, mounting the boat on the sledge, collecting eatables, clothing, and books.  We left at 6 a.m., arriving back at Patience Camp with the boat at 12.30 p.m., taking exactly three times as long to return with the boat as it did to pull in the empty sledge to fetch it.  On the return journey we had numerous halts while the pioneer party of four were busy breaking down pressure-ridges and filling in open cracks with ice-blocks, as the leads were opening up.  The sun had softened the surface a good deal, and in places it was terribly hard pulling.  Every one was a bit exhausted by the time we got back, as we are not now in good training and are on short rations.  Every now and then the heavy sledge broke through the ice altogether and was practically afloat.  We had an awful job to extricate it, exhausted as we were.  The longest distance which we managed to make without stopping for leads or pressure-ridges was about three quarters of a mile.

“About a mile from Patience Camp we had a welcome surprise.  Sir Ernest and Hussey sledged out to meet us with dixies of hot tea, well wrapped up to keep them warm.

“One or two of the men left behind had cut a moderately good track for us into the camp, and they harnessed themselves up with us, and we got in in fine style.

“One excellent result of our trip was the recovery of two cases of lentils weighing 42 lbs. each.”

The next day I sent Macklin and Crean back to make a further selection of the gear, but they found that several leads had opened up during the night, and they had to return when within a mile and a half of their destination.  We were never able to reach Ocean Camp again.  Still, there was very little left there that would have been of use to us.

By the middle of February the blubber question was a serious one.  I had all the discarded seals’ heads and flippers dug up and stripped of every vestige of blubber.  Meat was very short too.  We still had our three months’ supply of sledging food practically untouched; we were only to use this as a last resort.  We had a small supply of dog-pemmican, the dogs that were left being fed on those parts of the seals that we could not use.  This dog-pemmican we fried in suet with a little flour and made excellent bannocks.