200 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [^Iar. 



' To-night as I was walking back from the hills I was frost- 

 bitten in the lobe of the ear. I describe it because it was a 

 typical example. There was very little wind, and as I came 

 down the slope I distinctly heard or felt a sort of snap in my 

 ear, but, feeling nothing, I paid no heed until when I got on 

 board I realised that I had no feeling in the ear. It very 

 quickly thawed out — much too quickly, in fact ; for now it is 

 swelled up to a great size, and there will be no escaping the 

 coming blister.' 



On the following day we made our start, a party of twelve, 

 divided into two teams, each with a string of sledges and 

 nine dogs. A strong south-easterly wind with snow-drift was 

 pouring through the 'Gap,' but a mile or two to the south we 

 got clear of this and plodded on in comparative calm. Our 

 loads were arranged theoretically, 200 lbs. to each man and 

 100 lbs. to each dog, and the first discovery we made was that 

 the dogs entirely refused to work on our theory ; the best of 

 them only exerted a pull of about 50 lbs., and this with very 

 dispirited and downcast mien ; the rest hung disconsolately 

 back on the traces and had to be half led, half dragged over 

 the frozen surface. The whole thing was extremely trouble- 

 some, and, what with the heavy pulling and the constant 

 necessity of clearing the traces, as may be imagined, our 

 progress was extremely slow, and we heartily wished we had 

 left the whole dog team safely chained up. It was a curious 

 reversal of our expectations. I don't know that we had any 

 very good reason, but we had never thought but that our dogs, 

 when they got the chance, would be found straining at their 

 traces with heads and tails held high. To see them now with 

 both ends at the maximum depression was a severe shock to 

 our inexperience. 



We learnt later on that it was a bad plan to combine dogs 

 and men on a sledge ; the dogs have a pace and a manner of 

 pulling of their own, and neither of these is adapted to the 

 unequal movement caused by the swing of marching men. 

 Both men and dogs like a light load, but the former are much 

 less easily dispirited by a heavy one. 



