19"] END OF BARRIER JOURNEY 339 



without lunch. Three or four miles (T. + 2 3) found us en- 

 gulfed in pressures, but free from difficulty except the awful 

 softness of the snow. By 8 P.M. we had reached within a mile 

 or so of the slope ascending to the gap which Shackleton called 

 the Gateway. 22 I had hoped to be through the Gateway with 

 the ponies still in hand at a very much earlier date and, but 

 for the devastating storm, we should have been. It has been 

 a most serious blow to us, but things are not yet desperate, if 

 only the storm has not hopelessly spoilt the surface. The man- 

 haulers are not up yet, in spite of their light load. I think they 

 have stopped for tea, or something, but under ordinary condi- 

 tions they would have passed us with ease. 



At 8 P.M. the ponies were quite done, one and all. They 

 came on painfully slowly a few hundred yards at a time. By this 

 time I was hauling ahead, a ridiculously light load, and yet find- 

 ing the pulling heavy enough. We camped, and the ponies have 

 been shot.* Poor beasts! they have done wonderfully well con- 

 sidering the terrible circumstances under which they worked, but 

 yet it is hard to have to kill them so early. The dogs are going 

 well in spite of the surface, but here again one cannot get the 

 help one would wish. (T. -f- 19 .) I cannot load the animals 

 heavily on such snow. The scenery is most impressive; three 

 huge pillars of granite form the right buttress of the Gateway, 

 and a sharp spur of Mount Hope the left. The land is much 

 more snow covered than when we saw it before the storm. In 

 spite of some doubt in our outlook, everyone is very cheerful to- 

 night and jokes are flying freely around. 



* Camp 3 1 received the name of Shambles Camp. 



