428 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 



shovel to improve the road up for horse party, as they would have to come 

 over the same bad ice we had found difficult with the dogs ; but they were 

 nowhere to be seen close at hand as we had expected, for they were miles 

 out, as we soon saw, still trying to reach Hut Point by the sea ice round 

 Cape Armitage thaw pool, and on the ice which was showing a working 

 crack at 30 paces. I couldn't understand how Scott could do such a thing, 

 and it was only the next day that I found out that Scott had remained be- 

 hind and had sent Bowers in charge of this pony party. Bowers, having had 

 no experience of the kind, did not grasp the situation for some time, and 

 as we watched him and his party or as we thought Captain Scott and his 

 party of ponies we saw them all suddenly realise that they were getting 

 into trouble and the whole party turned back ; but instead of coming back 

 towards the Gap as we had, we saw them go due south towards the Barrier 

 edge and White Island. Then I thought they were all right, for I knew 

 they would get on to safe ice and camp for the night. We therefore had 

 our supper in the tent and were turning in between eleven and twelve when 

 I had a last look to see where they were and found they had camped as it 

 appeared to me on safe Barrier ice, the only safe thing they could have 

 done. They were now about six miles away from us, and it was lucky that 

 I had my Goerz glasses with me so that we could follow their movements. 

 Now as everything looked all right, Meares and I turned in and slept. At 

 5 A.M. I awoke, and as I felt uneasy about the party I went out and along 

 the Gap to where we could see their camp, and I was horrified to see that 

 the whole of the sea ice was now on the move and that it had broken up for 

 miles further than when we turned in and right back past where they had 

 camped, and that the pony party was now, as we could see, adrift on a floe 

 and separated by open water and a lot of drifting ice from the edge of the 

 fast Barrier ice. We could see with our glasses that they were running the 

 ponies and sledges over as quickly as possible from floe to floe whenever 

 they could, trying to draw nearer to the safe Barrier ice again. The whole 

 Strait was now open water to the N. of Cape Armitage, with the frost 

 smoke rising everywhere from it, and full of pieces of floating ice, all going 

 up N. to Ross Sea. 



March 1. Ash Wednesday. The question for us was whether we could 

 do anything to help them. There was no boat anywhere and there was no 

 one to consult with, for everyone was on the floating floe as we believed, 

 except Teddie Evans, Forde, and Keohane, who with one pony were on 

 their way back from Corner Camp. So we searched the Barrier for signs 

 of their tent and then saw that there was a tent at Safety Camp, which 

 meant evidently to us that they had returned. The obvious thing was to 

 join up with them and go round to where the pony party was adrift, and see 

 if we could help them to reach the safe ice. So without waiting for break- 

 fast we went off six miles to this tent. We couldn't go now by the Gap, 

 for the ice by which we had reached land yesterday was now broken up in 

 every direction and all on the move up the Strait. We had no choice now 

 but to cross up by Crater Hill and down by Pram Point and over the pres- 

 sure ridges and so on to the Barrier and off to Safety Camp. We couldn't 



