Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/124

the mouth of our bags levered open in the evening. We also tried getting the primus into our bags to thaw them out, but it was not very successful. Cooking coming back was a much longer process, since we had to hold the cooker up, having lost its proper stand and the top of the outer cooker—though Birdie's substitute was very good.

After breakfast we would be pretty warm, and having loaded the sledge the next job was to get a bearing on to some star or the moon if anything was visible. This meant lighting matches, always a big business. To light the candle in the tent we used sometimes to have to try three or even four boxes before one would light. Steering was very haphazard generally.

Then into our harness—and then four hours' march or relaying, if possible. The possibility depended on whether our feet got too cold, but the difficulty was to know when they were frostbitten.

Relaying was at first by naked candle—later by hurricane lamp—following back our tracks in the snow for the second sledge. We never could decide which was the heavier. We camped for lunch if possible before we got too cold, since this was always a cold job.

We cooked alternately day by day. The worst part was lighting up. The weekly bag was very cold to handle. Generally (often) we had to take off our finnesko or one of them to examine our feet and nurse them back if they were gone.

Then four hours' march more if possible.

Footgear on as soon as possible on camping. Our night footgear was very good.