Taking into account also the possibility of leads
opening close to us, and so of our being able to row north-west to
where we might find land, I decided to find a more solid floe and there
camp until conditions were more favourable for us to make a second
attempt to escape from our icy prison. To this end we moved our tents
and all our gear to a thick, heavy old floe about one and a half miles
from the wreck and there made our camp. We called this "Ocean Camp."
It was with the utmost difficulty that we shifted our two boats. The
surface was terrible--like nothing that any of us had ever seen around
us before. We were sinking at times up to our hips, and everywhere the
snow was two feet deep.
I decided to conserve our valuable sledging rations, which would be so
necessary for the inevitable boat journey, as much as possible, and to
subsist almost entirely on seals and penguins.
A party was sent back to Dump Camp, near the ship, to collect as much
clothing, tobacco, etc., as they could find. The heavy snow which had
fallen in the last few days, combined with the thawing and consequent
sinking of the surface, resulted in the total disappearance of a good
many of the things left behind at this dump. The remainder of the men
made themselves as comfortable as possible under the circumstances at
Ocean Camp.
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