THE TERRA NOVA GOES SOUTH 



IOI 



four trips a day as long as it was necessary. One soon 

 gets to know their characteristics. Fiery " Bliicher " trots 

 through all the work, whether he is pulling an empty sledge 

 or half a ton through a snowdrift ; in fact, the driver is 

 usually dragged alongside over the ten miles involved. With 

 a slippery surface and only a single rope halter, it will readily 

 be understood that four legs can defeat two if the whim seizes 

 him. One gentleman, rejoicing in the name of " Guts," broke 

 away three times, just as I had lugged him the weary mile to 

 the ship, and galloped back unencumbered. But the least- 

 envied duty in the expedition is a morning in the company 

 of " Weary Willie." With drooping lip and stubborn eye, he 

 improves on a crawl only when his driver precedes him with 

 the halter over his shoulder, and practically drags both pony 

 and sledge. In spite of a heavy load of patent fuel, he used 

 to start back two steps to the minute quicker, thinking he 

 was returning to the pony lines, but this soon degenerated to 

 a crawl, and his objections to returning for another load 

 necessitated special help at the turning-point. There was 

 another pony, whom I only discovered on the last day, who 

 was a happy mean between Bliicher and Weary. He was 

 anonymous, but deserved a baronetcy. The last loads con- 

 sisted of patent fuel (in foot cubes) and compressed fodder, 

 while ballast, in the form of thirty tons of kenyte, was loaded 

 from a snow-slide and taken back to the Terra Nova. 



Many of our minor pursuits irresistibly reminded me of 

 a childhood's day on the sands. There are little trenches to 

 be dug, to lead telephone wires to the Observatory hill ; 

 pemmican to be poked out of tins in solid cakes just like 

 the little sand-heaps moulded in toy buckets ; miniature 

 bridges over the tiny creeks ; and, most realistic of all, 

 grottoes to be carved out of solid banks — not of sand, but of 

 hard, clear ice. 



The track to the Observatory hill passes along a miniature 

 glacier with a bank fifteen feet high on the nearer side. In 

 this it was decided to cut an " ice house " for the mutton, and 

 for seals and penguins. Next door the physicists cut out 

 another grotto for magnetic work. Each took about a week 

 to complete. 



A " drive " was made into the ice about six feet high and 

 four feet wide. At a convenient distance this was widened 



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