than its share and was suffering as a natural consequence. The depot was
built in a conspicuous position, and this done, Meares's work ended. He
and Dimitri came along with us for a while and then turned back for a
long, lonely run over the inhospitable Barrier.

To help us Meares and the Russian dog-boy had travelled farther South
than their return rations allowed for, and for the 450 mile Northward
march to Cape Evans the two of them went short one meal a day rather than
deplete the depots. It is a dreadful thing on an Antarctic sledge journey
to forfeit a whole meal daily, and Meares's generosity should not be
forgotten.

The advance of Scott's men up the Beardmore was retarded considerably by
the deep, wet snow which had accumulated in the lower reaches of the
Glacier.

Panting and sweating we could only make 4 mile marches until the 13th
December, and even then the soft snow was 18 inches deep. On the 14th we
made a good 9 miles, but only by dint of our utmost efforts--we worked on
ski, and I tremble to think what we should have done here without them.
The aneroids gave us a rise of about 500 feet a day. Things were
improving now, and on December 15 we passed the 84 degree parallel--about
this time we succeeded in covering 9 to 10 miles daily, and to do this we
marched that same number of hours. A good deal of snow covering the
mountain ranges, but some remarkable outcrops of rock to vary the
scenery. The temperature was very high, and we were punished severely on
this account, for the snow was like beef dripping, and we flopped about
in it and hove our sledges along with no glide whatever to help us move
forward. Such panting, puffing, and sweating, but all in good humour and
bent on doing our best. Snowing hard in the latter part of the afternoon