198 WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



The pony party spent four hours or more trying to get to 

 a large piece of ice to the south, which seemed to be separated 

 from the firm barrier by a narrow crevasse. They left the 

 ponies and went off to prospect, and found the space was sixty 

 feet wide and full of grinding floes ! There was a big swell 

 all around, but Bowers gave Crean permission to try to cross 

 the gap. He managed to do so by some amazing jumps, and 

 with the aid of two ice axes he climbed the edge of the Ice 

 Barrier, and so informed Scott of their danger. 



Meanwhile Cherry and Birdie took things philosophically. 

 I heard how Birdie took angles with the theodolite to 

 determine the position of their floating island. A skua gull 

 settled near them, and Cherry thought it well to annex this 

 food supply, and did so. I was told that Crean made some 

 stiff cocoa for them while they were trying to rescue the 

 sledges. In the dark he mixed the food bags and a strong 

 decoction of curry resulted. Nothing daunted, the Irish 

 sailor declared it was as warming as the other, and drank 

 it ofF. 



On the afternoon of the ist the rescue party managed to 

 communicate with them, and Bowers and Cherry and most 

 of the sledge stores were saved. But the ponies had to be left 

 that night with feed bags to comfort them. Next day the 

 three ponies had drifted to a more favourable spot farther to 

 the south-west. Here the rescue party busily set to work 

 and cut out a path up the face of the Barrier. Nobby was 

 jumped from floe to floe, and at length reached the firm ice of 

 the Barrier. But the other two ponies were weaker. The 

 second jumped short, and though he managed to scramble on 

 to the floe again, he was too cold and weak to stand, and 

 fell into the water again. So, too, the third pony. All 

 round were eighteen killer whales waiting for the end. To 

 save them from a worse death their owners pole-axed them as 

 they feebly struggled in the icy waters of the Sound. 



[The tracks on the breaking edge of the Barrier were seen 

 by us on the nth March, just before the blizzard caught us 

 and held us up two days.] 



There were now again sixteen men in the old hut, and 

 sleeping quarters were arranged as follows. Scott, Evans, 

 Taylor, Debenham, Wright, and Forde slept in the West 

 End ; Wilson, Meares, Bowers, and Garrard in Virtue Villa ; 



