SPRING DEPÔT JOURNEY By Commander Edward R. G. R. Evans, R.N. On September 9, 1911, the depôt party, consisting of Lieutenant Evans, Gran, and Forde, left Cape Evans to dig out the depôts at Safety Camp and Corner Camp. As later on the dog teams were to take out quantities of stores to Corner Camp it was deemed advisable to visit this spot, and if necessary put new flags to mark it, and build up the cairn. The party started at 8 a.m. on ski, in beautifully fine, clear weather. We saw remarkable earth shadows on the clouds over Erebus. Nelson came with us to Glacier Tongue, and while we had four men we travelled at 3 miles per hour; directly he left our speed decreased materially. There is no doubt a four-man team has enormous advantages over one of three. The increase in permanent weights is very slight, consisting only of a sleeping-bag and a small personal bag; the only disadvantage is the difference in the time taken to cook meals. When marching against time the three-man unit saves nearly half an hour a day. We passed Meares driving home from Hut Point, but he was half a mile inshore and didn't come out on account of the dogs, who are very hard to control if they get near another sledge team. There was no object in camping for lunch on the sea ice, and we pushed on to Hut Point for lunch. The distance by sledgemeter was 13 miles 300 yards (statute 15 miles 264 yards). We found Meares had left everything at Hut Point in splendid order, and we soon had the blubber stove going and a meal cooked. At 5.15, it being quite fine, we repacked sledge and marched 4 miles out towards Safety Camp. We stopped about 9 p.m., had supper, and turned into our bags. Our camp was on the sea ice, and we noticed an extraordinary change in the temperature after rounding Cape Armitage; the thermometer at Hut Point showed −21° and on camping it was −42°, with a sharp biting breeze coming away from the Barrier. Minimum temp. −45°. On the following day we started off in a light easterly wind, temperature −36·5°, and hauled our sledge to Safety Camp, which is distant from Cape Evans 22 miles 452 yards (statute). We dug out the depôt, tallied stores, and then put up a wind recorder of Simpson's. It was interesting to see how Safety Camp had drifted up during the winter. It took many hours to dig it out, and although this depôt contained, amongst other things, 73 bales of fodder, each of 107 lbs. weight, the snow had completely covered it. After lunch we took 6 tins of paraffin from here and marched 8 miles 641 yards between 5.30 and 8.30 p.m. At 9 p.m. the thermometer showed 45·2° below zero. Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/437 The temperature fell a good deal during the night and we could scarcely sleep. Gran, using an eiderdown bag inside his sleeping-bag, was warmer than the other two of us, but later on our journey the eiderdown bag was like a board and he had very little if any advantage from it. On September 11, at 7 a.m., the temperature was −58·2°, the minimum for the night being −62·3°. At 9 a.m. we started off, and marched 5½ miles by sledgemeter (statute 6 miles 530 yards). We built cairns at every night and lunch camp, and small 'top-hats' whenever we had a halt.