Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/56

Knoll to-day in our endeavour to keep within the flat area of land ice. Sastrugi were increasing rapidly here, and we were now entering the true path of the southerly blizzard.

The min. temp. for the night had been −35°. At 8.30 a.m. it was −17·4°, and in the afternoon and evening it was −24·6°. [The experiences so lightly passed over in the official account were sufficiently thrilling in themselves. The other diary records:

Rather a hair-raising day—very bad night—by hard slogging 2¾ miles this morning—then on in thick gloom which suddenly lifted and we found ourselves under a huge great mountain of pressure ridge looking black in shadow—we went on bending to left when Bill fell and put his arm into a crevasse—we went over this and another and some time after got somewhere up to left, and both Bill and I put a foot into a crevasse—we sounded all about and everywhere was hollow, and so we ran the sledge down over it and all was well. My nerves were about on edge at end of day.]

Saturday, July 15, 1911.—The min. temp. for the night was −34·5°, but at 10.30 a.m. it was −19·2°, with a breeze of force 3 from the S.S.W. We got a clear view this morning, however, and could see the moraine shelf facing the Knoll, where we had decided to build our stone hut. We had a short, steep, uphill three miles' pull over very hard and deep-cut sastrugi to this spot, and then, rounding the lower end of the moraine, we found ourselves in the Knoll gap and pitched our last outward camp in a large