of biscuit, some Oxo and spare clothing. In short, after the sledge work
which they proposed, and actually carried out, the men were left with
skeleton rations for four weeks. They had also a spare tent and an extra
sleeping-bag. It was not seriously anticipated that the ship would have
great difficulty in picking them up in the latter half of February.

Campbell's party had carried out successful sledging and useful
geological work in the region of Evans Coves. They had then camped on the
beach and looked for the ship to relieve them. There was open water
lashed to fury by the wind so far as they could see, and yet she did not
come. They concluded that she must have been wrecked. The actual fact was
that thick pack ice lay beyond their vision through which Pennell was
trying to drive his ship time after time, until he had either to go or to
be frozen in. He never succeeded in approaching nearer than 27 miles.

It was now that a blizzard wind started to blow down from the plateau
behind them out into the continually open sea in front. The situation was
bad enough already, but of course such weather conditions made it
infinitely worse. Evans Coves is paved with boulders over which all
journeys had to be fought leaning against the wind as it blew: when a
lull came the luckless traveller fell forward on to his face. Under these
circumstances it was decided that preparations must be made to winter
where they were, and to sledge down the coast to Cape Evans in the
following spring. The alternative of sledging down the coast in March and
April never seems to have been seriously considered. At Hut Point, of
course, we were entirely in the dark as to what the party would do, hence
Atkinson's journey over to the western side in April 1912.

Meanwhile the stranded men divided into two parties of three men each.
The first under Campbell sank a shaft six feet down into a large