AT THE DEPOT 225 



At eleven o'clock the next morning — Sunday, Novem- 

 ber 12 — we reached the depot. Captain Amundsen had 

 promised to leave a brief report when the southern 

 party left here, and the first thing we did on arrival 

 was, of course, to search for the document in the place 

 agreed upon. There were not many words on the little 

 slip of paper, but they gave us the welcome intelligence : 

 " All well so far." 



We had expected that the southern party's dogs 

 would have finished the greater j)art, if not the whole, of 

 the seal meat that was laid down here in April; but 

 fortunately this was not the case. There was a great 

 quantity left, so that we could give our own dogs a 

 hearty feed with easy consciences. They had it, too, and 

 it was no trifling amount that they got through. The 

 four days' trot from Framheim had been enough to 

 produce an unusual appetite. There was a puppy in 

 Johansen's team that was exposed for the first time 

 in his life to the fatigues of a sledge journey. This was 

 a plucky little chap that went by the name of Lillegut. 

 The sudden change from short commons to abundance 

 was too much for his small stomach, and the poor puppy 

 lay shrieking in the snow most of the afternoon. 



We also looked after ourselves that day, and had a 

 good meal of fresh seal meat; after that we supplied 

 ourselves from the large stores that lay here with the 

 necessary provisions for a sledge journey of five weeks: 

 three cases of dogs' pemmican, one case of men's pemmi- 



