that curious damp, cold feeling in the air which chills one to the bone in no time.  We have been descending again, I think, but there looks to be a rise ahead; otherwise there is very little that is different from the awful monotony of past days.  Great God! this is an awful place and terrible enough for us to have laboured to it without the reward of priority.  Well, it is something to have got here, and the wind may be our friend to-morrow.  We have had a fat Polar hoosh in spite of our chagrin, and feel comfortable inside—­added a small stick of chocolate and the queer taste of a cigarette brought by Wilson.  Now for the run home and a desperate struggle.  I wonder if we can do it.

Thursday morning, January 18.—­Decided after summing up all observations that we were 3.5 miles away from the Pole—­one mile beyond it and 3 to the right.  More or less in this direction Bowers saw a cairn or tent.

We have just arrived at this tent, 2 miles from our camp, therefore about 1 1/2 miles from the Pole.  In the tent we find a record of five Norwegians having been here, as follows: 

                    Roald Amundsen
                    Olav Olavson Bjaaland
                    Hilmer Hanssen
                    Sverre H. Hassel
                    Oscar Wisting.

16 Dec. 1911.

The tent is fine—­a small compact affair supported by a single bamboo.  A note from Amundsen, which I keep, asks me to forward a letter to King Haakon!

The following articles have been left in the tent:  3 half bags of reindeer containing a miscellaneous assortment of mits and sleeping socks, very various in description, a sextant, a Norwegian artificial horizon and a hypsometer without boiling-point thermometers, a sextant and hypsometer of English make.

Left a note to say I had visited the tent with companions.  Bowers photographing and Wilson sketching.  Since lunch we have marched 6.2 miles S.S.E. by compass (i.e. northwards).  Sights at lunch gave us 1/2 to 3/4 of a mile from the Pole, so we call it the Pole Camp. (Temp.  Lunch -21 deg..) We built a cairn, put up our poor slighted Union Jack, and photographed ourselves—­mighty cold work all of it—­less than 1/2 a mile south we saw stuck up an old underrunner of a sledge.  This we commandeered as a yard for a floorcloth sail.  I imagine it was intended to mark the exact spot of the Pole as near as the Norwegians could fix it. (Height 9500.) A note attached talked of the tent as being 2 miles from the Pole.  Wilson keeps the note.  There is no doubt that our predecessors have made thoroughly sure of their mark and fully carried out their programme.  I think the Pole is about 9500 feet in height; this is remarkable, considering that in Lat. 88 deg. we were about 10,500.  We carried the Union Jack about 3/4 of a mile north with us and left it on a piece of stick as near as we could fix it.  I fancy the Norwegians arrived at the Pole on the 15th Dec. and left on the 17th, ahead of a date quoted by me in London as ideal, viz.  Dec. 22.  It looks as though the Norwegian party expected colder weather on the summit than they got; it could scarcely be otherwise from Shackleton’s account.  Well, we have turned our back now on the goal of our ambition and must face our 800 miles of solid dragging—­and good-bye to most of the daydreams!