THE TERRA NOFA GOES SOUTH 89 



and were swung out in a box on a rope from the yard with 

 great ease. The motor sledges were transhipped in their 

 cases — which had hitherto formed efficient walls to the dog 

 "hangar." Three ropes attached to the mainyard, and 

 manned by ten men, enabled the case — weighing about a ton 

 — to be swung up, outward, and downward on to the floe 

 without a jar. The motors were then taken from their cases, 

 and run further on to the floe, where Day and Nelson soon 

 had them running. It was their buzzing which annoyed our 

 high-spirited steed, " Hackenschmidt." He careered about 

 the waist of the ship, and was more trouble to land than all 

 the other sixteen. He continued his career of uselessness 

 during the following busy season. Ponting found much 

 material here for his cinematograph, and had the machine 

 clicking merrily most of the forenoon. He has literally miles 

 of films, and it is amusing to see the way he snips off a foot 

 or so of an exposed film quite callously to develop it and judge 

 the result. As he says, it only represents a second which will 

 never be missed in a series of several minutes. 



It was a large hauling job that confronted us. Material 

 for a hut, 50 by 25 feet, with walls and roof of six or 

 eight layers ; sledging equipments, tents, etc., for thirty 

 men ; food for two years ; fuel (chiefly a patent coal com- 

 pound) for the same period ; and fodder for the seventeen 

 horses and for the dogs. All this had to be carried nearly two 

 miles across the sea-ice on sledges. What now were the 

 means of haulage ? We had many and varied methods. 

 Firstly, the motor sledges ; secondly, the ponies ; thirdly, the 

 dogs ; and fourthly, man power. Each has something in 

 its favour. Speed of transit goes to the dogs, non-liability 

 to accidents to the man-power ; gross tonnage to the motors, 

 and general efficiency (with decent specimens) I should award 

 to the ponies. 



The man-sledges got to work very early in the campaign. 

 The sledges are nine and twelve feet long, with runners four 

 inches wide, and upturned somewhat at both ends. There is 

 a flexible bent prow, and six or eight vertical stanchions, which 

 support the upper frame — as simple a design as one could 

 devise. Everything is secured by leather lashings, the abut- 

 ting ends being sewn into a sort of leather bucket. A rope 

 loop projects from the front, but is fastened to the forward 



