THE SURVIVING DOGS 181 



wind would be dead against us, and as to tacking with 

 the Fram — no, thank you ! Every single man on board 

 knew enough of the conditions to be well aware of what 

 awaited us, and it is equally certain that the thoughts 

 of all were centered upon how we might conquer our 

 coming difficulties in the best and quickest way. It 

 was the one great, common object that still bound, and 

 would continue to bind, us all together in our joint 

 efforts. 



Among the items of news that we had just received 

 from the outer world was the message that the Aus- 

 trahan Antarctic Expedition under Dr. Douglas 

 Mawson would be glad to take over some of our dogs, 

 if we had any to spare. The base of this expedition 

 was Hobart, and as far as that went, this suited us very 

 well. It chanced that we were able to do our esteemed 

 colleague this small service. On leaving the Barrier 

 we could show a pack of thirty-nine dogs, many 

 of which had grown up during our year's stay there; 

 about half had survived the whole trip from Norway, 

 and eleven had been at the South Pole. It had been 

 our intention only to keep a suitable number as the 

 progenitors of a new pack for the approaching voyage 

 in the Arctic Ocean, but Dr. Mawson's request caused 

 us to take all the thirty-nine on board. Of these dogs, 

 if nothing unforeseen happened, we should be able to 

 make over twenty-one to him. When the last load 

 was brought down, there was nothing to do but to pull 



