162 THE RETURN TO FRA^IHEIM 



into hiding, and did not show itself again. As soon as 

 we came into the sunshine, we ran upon one of our 

 beacons; our course lay straight towards it. That was 

 not bad steering in the dark. At 9 p.m. we reached 

 the depot in 85° S. Now we could begin to be liberal 

 with the dogs' food, too; they had double pemmican 

 rations, besides as many oatmeal biscuits as they would 

 eat. We had such masses of biscuits now that we 

 could positively throw them about. Of course, we 

 might have left a large part of these provisions behind ; 

 but there was a great satisfaction in being so well sup- 

 plied with food, and the dogs did not seem to mind the 

 little extra weight in the least. As long as things went 

 so capitally as they were going — that is, with men and 

 dogs exactly keeping pace with one another — we could 

 ask for nothing better. But the weather that had 

 cheered us was not of long duration. " Same beastly 

 w^eather," my diary says of the next stage. The wind 

 had shifted to the north-west, with overcast, thick 

 weather, and very troublesome drifting snow. In spite 

 of these unfavourable conditions, we passed beacon 

 after beacon, and at the end of our march had picked 

 up all the beacons we had erected on this distance of 

 seventeen miles and three-eighths. But, as before, we 

 owed this to Hanssen's good eyes. 



On our way southward we had taken a good deal of 

 seal meat and had divided it among the depots we built 

 on the Barrier in such a way that we were now able to 



