Il8 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [February 



It taught us the nature of the surface more than many hours 

 of pony leading!! The incident is deplorable and the blame 

 widespread. I find W.W.'s load was much heavier than that of 

 the other ponies. 



I blame myself for not supervising these matters more 

 effectively and for allowing W.W. to get so far behind. 



We started off again after lunch, but when we had done 

 two-thirds of a mile, W.W.'s condition made it advisable to halt. 

 He has been given a hot feed, a large snow wall, and some extra 

 sacking the day promises to be quiet and warm for him, and 

 one can only hope that these measures will put him right again. 

 But the whole thing is very annoying. 



Memo. Arrangements for ponies. 



1. Hot bran or oat mashes. 



2. Clippers for breaking wires of bales. 



3. Pickets for horses. 



4. Lighter ponies to take 10 ft. sledges? 



The surface is so crusty and friable that the question of 

 snow-shoes again becomes of great importance. 



All the sastrugi are from S.W. by S. to S.W. and all the 

 wind that we have experienced in this region there cannot be 

 a doubt that the wind sweeps up the coast at all seasons. 



A point has arisen as to the deposition. David * called 

 the crusts seasonal. This must be wrong; they mark blizzards, 

 but after each blizzard fresh crusts are formed only over the 

 patchy heaps left by the blizzard. A blizzard seems to leave 

 heaps which cover anything from one-sixth to one-third of the 

 whole surface such heaps presumably turn hollows into mounds 

 with fresh hollows between these are filled in turn by ensuing 

 blizzards. If this is so, the only way to get at the seasonal depo- 

 sition would be to average the heaps deposited and multiply this 

 by the number of blizzards in the year. 



Monday, February 1 5. 14 Camp. 7 miles 775 yards. The 

 surface was wretched to-day, the two drawbacks of yesterday 

 (the thin crusts which let the ponies through and the sandy heaps 

 which hang on the runners) if anything exaggerated. 



Bowers' pony refused work at intervals for the first time. 

 His hind legs sink very deep. Weary Willy is decidedly better. 



* Professor T. Edgeworth David, C.M.G., F.R.S., of Sydney University, who was 

 the geologist to Shackleton's party. 



