216 DEPOT JOURNEYS 



We had two tents, and slept two in a tent. These tents 

 were made for three men, but were too small for four. 

 Cooking was only done in one, both for the sake ol" 

 economy, so that we might leave more at the depot, 

 and because it was unnecessary, as the weather was still 

 quite mild. 



On this first trip, as on all the depot journeys, our 

 morning arrangements took far too long. We began 

 to get ready at four, but were not on the road till nearly 

 eight. I was always trying some means of remedying 

 this, but without success. It will naturally be asked, 

 What could be the cause of this? and I will answer 

 candidly it was dawdling and nothing else. On these 

 depot journeys it did not matter so much, but on the 

 main journey we had to banish dawdling relentlessly. 



Next day we did the allotted seventeen miles in six 

 hours, and pitched our camp early in the afternoon. 

 The dogs were rather tired, as it had been uphill work 

 all day. To-day, from a distance of twenty-eight miles, 

 we could look down into the Bay of Whales ; this shows 

 that we had ascended considerably. We estimated our 

 camp that evening to be 500 feet above the sea. We 

 were astonished at this rise, but ought not to have been 

 so really, since we had already estimated this ridge at 

 500 feet when we first saw it from the end of the bay. 

 But however it may be, most of us have a strong pro- 

 pensity for setting up theories and inventing something 

 new. What others have seen does not interest us, and 



