Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/83
overcast. When I turned out three or four hours later there was still no wind; but it came on to blow suddenly soon after 3 a.m., and blew heavily from the S. with little drift at first.
Saturday, July 22, 1911.—By 6.30 a.m. it was blowing force 9 to 10 from the S.S.W., with heavy drift and wind in strong gusts, and when Bowers turned out he found the tent had disappeared, legs, lining, cover and all, leaving the cooker and all the gear we had left in it overnight on the ground. The drift was now very thick and there was nothing to be done but to collect the gear, which Bowers and Cherry did and passed it in to me in the hut. Very little of the gear was lost. All our finnesko were there and were recovered, as well as a quantity of smaller gear. The only losses were the two flat parts of the cooker, which we never found afterwards.
[We were woken up by Birdie shouting through the door, 'Bill, Bill, the tent has gone.' I got out, helped Birdie, and passed the gear which had been in the tent into the igloo, where Bill took it. It was impossible to stand against the wind: Birdie was blown right over; each time we got something it was a fight to get the three or four yards to the igloo door: if the wind had started us down the slope nothing would have stopped us. The place where the tent had been was littered with gear. When we came to reckon up afterwards we had everything except the bottom piece of the cooker and the top of the outer cooker. The former was left on the top of the cooker, the latter was in its groove. We never regained them. The most wonderful thing of all was