Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/206

February 14 and 15.—Priestley and I spent the two days collecting and surveying. On the night of the 15th it began to snow, and, a strong plateau wind getting up, we spent the 16th in our tent, the drift being too thick to do anything.

February 17.—Still blowing hard, with drift, but clear overhead. In the afternoon we packed up, and pulled over to the main depôt, as the ship was due the following day. We camped late in the evening in our old place under the moraine. Blowing a heavy gale all night.

February 18 to 29.—Most of this time while we were waiting for the Terra Nova the wind blew with uninterrupted violence and the tents suffered considerably. Our own tent split near the cap, but after several failures we managed to tie a lashing round the top and so saved the split from spreading to the body of the canvas.

Levick's tent also split near the opening, and Abbott was obliged to sew the rent up in spite of the coldness of the blizzard.

On February 24 the blizzard lulled for a short time and we were enabled to get a little exercise, but the whole of this time was occupied with a not too cheerful discussion about food.

Our sledging provisions were due to give out on the 27th and it was necessary to reserve at least half of the depôt food for the sledge journey down the coast in the spring which would become inevitable should the ship not relieve us. It was therefore necessary to reduce the ration at once, and I asked Priestley to take charge of all food