OHYAT: In a Very Queer Street

[tealin]

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO YESTERDAY, Cherry, rushing south with Dimitri and the dogs, wrote: "If anybody had told me we could reach Bluff Depôt, nearly ninety miles, in four days, I would not have believed it." Temperatures weren't too bad for them, yet, but there was no doubt the season was coming to a close: on the 28th, the sun properly set for the first time in months. "After he had gone down a great bonfire seemed to blaze out from the horizon. Now -22° and we use a candle for the first time."

ONE HUNDRED YEARS AGO TODAY, coming in the other direction, enduring nighttime temperatures dipping to the -40s, under much greater difficulty and slower pace:

Misfortunes rarely come singly. We marched to the (Middle Barrier) depot ... and since that have suffered three distinct blows which have placed us in a bad position. First we found a shortage of oil; with most rigid economy it can scarce carry us to the next depot on this surface. Second, Titus Oates disclosed his feet, the toes showing very bad indeed, evidently bitten by the late temperatures. The third blow came in the night, when the wind, which we had hailed with some joy, brought dark overcast weather. .... We are in a very queer street since there is no doubt we cannot do the extra marches and feel the cold horribly.

– R.F. Scott