278 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [September 



meet them. I fear to be too sanguine, yet taking everything 

 into consideration I feel that our chances ougiit to be good. The 

 animals are in splendid form. Day by day the ponies get fitter 

 as their exercise increases, and the stronger, harder food 

 toughens their muscles. They are very different animals from 

 those which we took south last year, and with another month 

 of training I feel there is not one of them but will make light 

 of the loads we shall ask them to draw. But we cannot spare 

 any of the ten, and so there must always be anxiety of the dis- 

 ablement of one or more before their work is done. 



E. R. Evans, Forde, and Gran left early on Saturday for 

 Corner Camp. I hope they will have no difficulty in finding it. 

 Meares and Demetri came back from Hut Point the same after- 

 noon — the dogs are v/onderfully fit and strong, but Meares 

 reports no seals up in the region, and as he went to make seal 

 pemmican, there was little object in his staying. I leave him to 

 come and go as he pleases, merely setting out the work he has 

 to do in the simplest form. I want him to take fourteen bags of 

 forage (130 lbs. each) to Corner Camp before the end of 

 October and to be ready to start for his supporting work soon 

 after the pony party — a light task for his healthy teams. Of 

 hopeful signs for the future none are more remarkable than 

 the health and spirit of our people. It would be impossible to 

 imagine a more vigorous community, and there does not seem 

 to be a single weak spot in the twelve good men and true who 

 are chosen for the Southern advance. All are now experienced 

 sledge travellers, knit together with a bond of friendship that 

 has never been equalled under such circumstances. Thanks 

 to these people, and more especially to Bowers and Petty Officer 

 Evans, there is not a single detail of our equipment which is 

 not arranged with the utmost care and in accordance with the 

 tests of experience. 



It is good to have arrived at a point where one can run 

 over facts and figures again and again without detecting a flaw or 

 foreseeing a difficulty. 



I do not count on the motors — that is a strong point in our 

 case — but should they work well our earlier task of reaching 

 the Glacier will be made quite easy. Apart from such help I 

 am anxious that these machines should enjoy some measure of 

 success and justify the time, money, and thought which have 



