Camp 11
Found One Ton Camp without any difficulty. It's 130 geographical miles form Cape Evans. We are going to give the ponies a day's rest here, then push through at a rate of 13 miles per day. Oates thinks the ponies will get through, but they have lost condition quicker than expected. Considering his usually pessimistic attitude, this must be thought a hopeful view. Personally I am much more hopeful. I think a good many of the beasts are actually in better form than when they started, and that there is no need to be alarmed about the remainder, always excepting the weak ones which we have always regarded with doubt.
Well, we much wait and see how things go.
I hope Evans has built lots of good cairns - he has taken on four boxes of biscuit.
It was a very beautiful day yesterday, bright sun, but as we marched, towards midnight, the sky gradually became overcast; very beautiful halo rings formed around the sun. Four separate rings were very distinct. The spread of stratus cloud overhead was very remarkable. The sky was blue all around the horizon.
There is a very thin, light fall of snow crystals. They barely exist a moment when they light upon our equipment. When it is blankly white the sense of oppression is inevitable.
Most of us are using goggles with a light green tint. We find this coloring very grateful to the eyes, and as a rule it is possible to see everything through them even more clearly than with naked vision.
The thermometer I left here last year records a minimum of -73, rather less than expected.
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