Our matches, among other things, are running short, and we have given up using any except for lighting the Primus." The party found the light bad again the next day.

After stumbling on ski among the sastrugi for two hours, the men discarded the ski and made better progress; but they still had many falls, owing to the impossibility of distinguishing slopes and irregularities in the grey, shadowless surface of the snow.

They made over nine and a half miles that day, and managed to cover ten miles on the following day, March 18, one of the best marches of the journey.

"I look forward to seeing the ship.

All of us bear marks of our tramp.