360 ANNUAL REPORT SMITHSONIAN INSTITUTION, 1909. 
compressed fodder, 900 pounds in all, the allowance for each pony 
being 10 pounds per day. 
The southern party left the winter quarters on October 29 accom- 
panied by a supporting party of six men. Progress at first was slow, 
heavy weather and crevassed ice being encountered; and it was not 
until November 15 that we reached the depot laid out on the spring 
journey, the supporting party having left us some days previously. 
The ponies were pulling well, and I was feeling very satisfied with 
the change from the dogs used when I accompanied Captain Scott on 
his southern journey in 1902. The surface was soft, but we were 
able to move south at the rate of about 15 miles each day. Our 
course lay farther from the land than the course followed by the 
previous expedition, as is shown on the accompanying chart. Good 
marches were made in the days that followed, and on November 26 
we camped in latitude 82° 181’ S., longitude 168° E., having passed 
the “ farthest south” record. New land had come within our range 
~ of vision by this time, owing to the fact that we were far out from the 
base of the mountains, and I had noted with some anxiety that the 
coast trended south-southeast, thus threatening to cross our path 
and obstruct the way to the pole. We could see great snowclad 
mountains rising beyond Mount Longstaff, and also far inland to the 
north of Mount Markham. On November 26 we opened out Shackle- 
ton Inlet, and looking up it sighted a great chain of mountains, while 
to the west of Cape Wilson appeared another chain of sharp peaks, 
about 10,000 feet high, stretching away to the north beyond Snow 
Cape, and continuing the land on which Mount A. Markham lies. 
The first pony had been killed on November 21, when we were south 
of the eighty-first parallel, and we had left a depot of pony meat 
and ordinary stores to provide for the return march. We started at 
once to use pony meat as part of the daily ration, and soon found that 
scraps of raw, frozen meat were of assistance on the march in main- 
taining our strength and cooling our parched throats. A second 
pony was shot on November 28, and a third on December 1, by which 
time we were closing in on the land, and it had become apparent that 
we would have to find a way over the mountains if we were to con- 
tinue the southern march. We were still sighting new land ahead, 
and the coast line had a more distinct easterly trend. We camped on 
December 2 in latitude 83° 28’ S., longitude 171° 30’ E., opposite a 
red granite mountain about 3,000 feet in height. On the following 
day we climbed this mountain, and from its summit saw an enormous 
glacier, stretching almost due south, flanked by huge mountains, and 
issuing on to the Barrier south of our camp. We decided at once 
that we had better ascend the glacier, and on the following day made 
our way, with two sledges and the last pony, on to its surface. 
