Geography Reference
In-Depth Information
124
December 21.—We have been hauling the sledges up, one after another, by standing
pulls across crevasses and over great pressure ridges.
December 22.—All day long, from 7 A.M. except for the hour we stopped for lunch,
we have been relaying the sledges over the pressure mounds and across crevasses.
Our total distance to the good for the whole day was only 4 miles southward, but
this evening our prospects look brighter, for we must now have come to the end of
the great glacier. It is flattening out, and except for crevasses there will not be much
trouble in hauling in sledges tomorrow.
December 23.—Eight thousand eight hundred and twenty feet up, and still steering
upwards amid great waves of pressure and ice falls, for our plateau, after a good
morning's march, began to rise in higher ridges, so that it really was not the plateau
at all.
December 24.—A much better day for us; indeed, the brightest we have had since
entering our Southern Gateway.
Early in the day the surface had begun to smooth out and by the time they camped, the
party felt that they had left the crevasses behind. They also were buoyed by thoughts of
Christmas Day, when all the food plans of the previous month would be realized in holi-
day feasting.
On a better than average breakfast the men marched on Christmas Day as always.
Soft snow was drifting from the south, placing extra drag on the sledges, and the surface
continued to rise steeply. By the time they camped at 6:00 P.M. , the air had clarified in the
southeast quadrant and new lands could be seen stretching far into the distance in that
direction.
The Christmas dinner was bolstered by small fractions of food that had been saved
by each cook over the previous four weeks. Goodies included some of the emergency Oxo
beef stock and a small plum pudding boiled in cocoa with a spot of medicinal brandy. The
feast ended with “cigars and a spoonful of creme de menthe sent us by a friend from Scot-
land,” and the discussion shifted to further reduced rations if the party was to succeed in
reaching the pole.
Famished but fit, with no signs of scurvy, they continued south. By December 28
they were camped above ten thousand feet. They had crossed their last crevasse the day
before, but the surface continued to rise. The altitude was taking its eVect, especially on
Shackleton, who was experiencing severe headaches. A storm sprang up about noon on
the 30th and held them in their tents the rest of the day. By January 3 the men finally ad-
mitted the impossibility of reaching the pole, if they wanted to return alive. At that camp
they made a depot of food and fuel to see them back to the depot at the head of the gla-
cier, and with one tent and ten days' food made their final (and futile) rush toward the
pole. Even with the lightened load, the “rush” was held to ten to fifteen miles per day by
blowing snow, thin air, temperatures 20-30° F below zero, and the meager ration. On
January 7 “a blinding, shrieking blizzard” descended on the party, holding the men in
