Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/522

A party of six left Cape Evans on December 2, 1912, with the main object of surveying the old crater, and if time permitted making an ascent to the rim of the present active crater. It was originally intended that in the final climb Professor David's route should be followed, but our researches in the old crater led to the adoption of quite a different way, and one where a sledge could be pulled to a height of considerably over 9500 feet, at least 3000 feet higher than the Shackleton Expedition party were able to reach before being obliged to abandon theirs.

We left our Cape Royds camp (1000 feet above sea level) on December 4. It was not an ideal day for starting, and for the first 2000 feet of the ascent we groped from nunatak to nunatak through a thick cloud, and Debenham was unable to commence his plane table survey.

We lunched above this cloud belt, and although it swelled slowly upwards we were, with the exception of a very few minutes in the early afternoon, able to keep ahead of it until we camped beneath a prominent cone about 4,000 feet above sea level, which is well seen on the sky line from Cape Evans, and which would therefore be an important point of Debenham's survey, linking the portion