Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/106

[Though our sledge, which we called the Pantechnicon, was a mountain, and of a considerable weight, we started to do good marches. We dare not roll up our bags since the blizzard in case they should break. For two nights I got a fair sleep in the new eiderdown, nights which would have been nightmares under ordinary circumstances, but which now put some new life into me. Bill was now having the worst nights—never sleeping as far as he knew. We were not much better. My new eiderdown was already sopping and as hard as iron: I never thawed out the greater part of my big bag. Even Birdie began to shiver in his bag. Sometimes we would have done a great deal not to stop marching and turn in: but we had to turn in each night for six or seven hours, rising about 5 a.m.]

Our hands gave us more pain with cold than any other part, and this we all found to be the case. In the bags the hands, and half-mits and any other covering we liked to use, got soaking wet, and the skin sodden like washer-women’s hands. The result, on turning out, was that they were ready to freeze at once, and even the tying of the tent door became a real difficulty, the more so as the tie had become stiff as wire. Another difficulty in the bags was the freezing of the lanyards after one had tied them inside the bag. Nothing would loosen them save thawing, in one’s already painfully cold hands, and this was often awkward if one wished to turn out quickly. I believe the only satisfactory covering for the hands in these conditions would be a bag of dry saennegras, but we had only sufficient for our feet and it was not tried.