Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/275

pack and Browning with a smaller one, as he had not quite recovered.

The change in Browning's condition owing to the biscuit is marvellous.

A week ago he could just walk by the sledge on a march of 8 or 10 miles; to-night, although tired, he is none the worse for his 18-mile walk. We found Priestley and his party had already arrived with the rest of the depôt when we got back, and to my great joy he had been able to fit the iron runners on to the 12-ft. sledge.

November 5.—We turned out at 3.30. A lovely morning, with bright sun. After breakfast we started away, steering for the Dailey Islands, but we were forced to make a détour to the west to avoid rotten ice-leads.

The mirage was extraordinary. At one place we thought we saw three men pulling a sledge; Priestley and I walked towards them; they apparently stopped; Priestley started semaphoring while I looked through my glasses. No result. Suddenly they turned and I saw they were Emperor penguins, miraged up in a way that made them look like figures. These leads of bad ice seemed to run into Blue Glacier, but I thought I could see good ice beyond them, so we raced the sledge straight across, getting over without a mishap. Once over we found old ice behind a pressure ridge, and after crossing that struck the Barrier edge, here about 4 feet high, with snowdrifts leading on to it. A large number of seals and Emperor penguins were on the old ice. Here we lunched. The Barrier edge runs out in a tongue, and we had struck it on the north-west corner. We were thus able to steer