The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914Mawson, Douglas, Sir
History
The Home of the Blizzard: Being the Story of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition, 1911-1914
Mawson, Douglas, Sir
Antarctica -- Discovery and exploration; Australasian Antarctic Expedition (1911-1914)
In the afternoon, Dr. Mawson's party forged ahead, the dogs romping
along on a downhill grade. We took the bit in our teeth as we saw them
sitting on their sledges, growing smaller and smaller in front of us. We
came up with them again as they had waited to exchange a few more words
at a point on the track where a long extent of coast to the east came
into view.
Here we bade a final adieu to Dr. Mawson, Mertz and Ninnis. The surface
was on the down grade towards the east, and with a cheer and farewell
wave they started off, Mertz walking rapidly ahead, followed by Ninnis
and Dr. Mawson with their sledges and teams. They were soon lost to view
behind the rolling undulations.
A mile farther on we pitched camp at 8 P.M. in a slight depression just
out of sight of the sea. Every one slept soundly after a good day's
pulling.
November 18 was a bright dazzling day, the sky dotted with fleecy
alto-cumulus. At 6 A.M. we were out to find Stillwell's party moving in
their tent. There was a rush for shovels to fill the cookers with snow
and a race to boil hoosh.
At this camp we tallied up the provisions, with the intention of taking
what we might require from Stillwell and proceeding independently of
him, as he was likely to leave us any day. There were fifty-nine days to
go until January 15, 1913, the latest date of arrival back at the Hut,
for which eight weeks' rations were considered to be sufficient. There
were seven weeks' food on the sledge, so Stillwell handed over another
fifty-pound bag as well as an odd five pounds of wholemeal biscuit. The
total amount of kerosene was five gallons, with a bottle of methylated
spirit.
Shortly after eight o'clock we caught sight of Dr. Mawson's camp, and
set sail to make up the interval. This we did literally as there was
a light westerly breeze--the only west wind we encountered during the
whole journey.
The sledge was provided with a bamboo mast, seven feet high, stepped
behind the cooker-box and stayed fore and aft with wire. The yard was
a bamboo of six feet, slung from the top of the mast, its height being
varied by altering the length of the slings. The bamboo was threaded
through canvas leads in the floor-cloth which provided a spread of
thirty square feet of sail. It was often such an ample area that it had
to be reefed from below.
With the grade sloping gently down and the wind freshening, the pace
became so hot that the sledge often overran us. A spurious "Epic of the
East" (see 'Adelie Blizzard') records it:
Crowd on the sail-
Let her speed full and free "on the run"
Over knife-edge and glaze, marble polish and pulverized chalk
The finnesko glide in the race, and there's no time for talk.
Up hill, down dale,
It's all in the game and the fun.
We rapidly neared Dr. Mawson's camp, but when we were within a few miles
of it, the other party started in a south-easterly direction and were
soon lost to sight. Our course was due east.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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