124 THE VOYAGE OF THE < DISCOVERY ' [Feb. 



On February 13 the work of transferring the stores was 

 commenced ; it was arranged that the loads should be taken 

 half-way by the ' Morning's ' men, and from thence brought in 

 by our own. It seemed at first that the ' Morning,' with her 

 smaller company, would have the heavier task, but this was 

 avoided by a very liberal interpretation of the half-way point ; 

 in fact, the distance they covered gradually became little more 

 than a quarter of the whole, whilst our parties took 3! hours 

 to fetch the load in from the junction. The loads ran from 

 1,500 lbs. to 1,800 lbs., and in good weather two could be got 

 across in the day, but the biting cold east wind was a great 

 hindrance, and was felt more keenly at the ' Discovery ' end. 

 It was in general especially strong about Hut Point, showing 

 that, as we had suspected, chance had placed our winter 

 quarters in the most windy spot in the vicinity. 



Owing to this interference of the weather, by the 20th only 

 eight loads had been brought in ; on that day, therefore, we 

 started an extra party, which went to the ■ Morning ' in the 

 forenoon and returned with a whole load in the afternoon. In 

 this manner ten more loads were transported by the evening 

 of the 23rd, and this completed the work except for sundry 

 light articles. The manner in which the officers and men of 

 the relief ship stuck to this very monotonous task was beyond 

 praise ; if anything had been wanting to show their ardent 

 desire to assist us by every means in their power, this surely 

 would have proved it. On our side, our people laboured for 

 their own comfort, though, whatever the cause, they were little 

 likely to jib at hard work ; in fact, on this occasion there were 

 not a few who, like Mr. Barne, volunteered to make the double 

 journey each day — a matter involving eleven or twelve hours 

 of solid marching. 



The goods which we thus obtained from our relief ship 

 were none of them necessary to our continued existence in the 

 South, but they were such as added greatly to the comfort of 

 our position, and I do not use the word 'necessary' here in 

 its strictest sense; as far as food is concerned, the absolute 

 necessities of life are very limited, and in the South they were 



