The camp I wished
to find was one where the party could live for weeks or even months in
safety, without danger from sea or wind in the heaviest winter gale.
Wild was to proceed westwards along the coast and was to take with him
four of the fittest men, Marston, Crean, Vincent, and McCarthy. If he
did not return before dark we were to light a flare, which would serve
him as a guide to the entrance of the channel. The 'Stancomb Wills'
pushed off at 11 a.m. and quickly passed out of sight around the
island. Then Hurley and I walked along the beach towards the west,
climbing through a gap between the cliff and a great detached pillar of
basalt. The narrow strip of beach was cumbered with masses of rock
that had fallen from the cliffs. We struggled along for two miles or
more in the search for a place where we could get the boats ashore and
make a permanent camp in the event of Wild's search proving fruitless,
but after three hours' vain toil we had to turn back. We had found on
the far side of the pillar of basalt a crevice in the rocks beyond the
reach of all but the heaviest gales. Rounded pebbles showed that the
seas reached the spot on occasions. Here I decided to depot ten cases
of Bovril sledging ration in case of our having to move away quickly.
We could come back for the food at a later date if opportunity offered.
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