Monday 23 October [Actually October 22]Overcast and thick when we started at 8 a.m. After a little while it cleared overhead but the whole horizon remained thick.
Soon we have a stiff breeze from the S.W. quarter with heavy drift, so we could see absolutely nothing – 100 m. ahead was all. According to the distance we covered yesterday, we should have another 22.8 nautical miles to 80°. We had a good test of both sledgemeter and compass. Without having seen our hands in front of our faces, so to speak, we ran close up to the depot 1.30 p.m. It was brilliant proof: a single point on this huge space, guided by sledgemeter and compass in the thickest spindrift. Everything was in good order, as we had left it. Snowdrifts had naturally formed round our sledge cases. We have now fed the doggies liberally with seal meat, and the carcasses are placed out on the snow to be used at will. This transcript comes from “Race for the South Pole - The Expedition Diaries of Scott and Amundsen” by Roland Huntford. It appears by courtesy of the author and The Continuum International Publishing Group Ltd. |
South Pole 1911–2011 is an informational outreach project run by the Norwegian Polar Institute
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