THE POLAR JOURNEY 329 



finds the soft snow does not hurt his knees like the sea-ice, 

 and so plunges about on them ad lib. One's finnesko are 

 so slippery that it is difficult to exert full strength on him, 

 and to-day he bowled Oates over and got away altogether. 

 Fortunately the lashing on his fourth leg held fast, and we 

 were able to secure him when he rejoined the other animals. 

 Finally he lay down, and thought he had defeated us, but 

 we had the sledge connected up by that time, and as he got 

 up we rushed him forward before he had time to kick over 

 the traces. . . . Dimitri came and gave us a hand with 

 Chris. Three of us hung on to him while the other two 

 connected up the sledge. We had a struggle for over 

 twenty minutes, and he managed to tread on me, but no 

 damage done. . . . Got Chris in by a dodge. Titus did 

 away with his back strap, and nearly had him away un- 

 aided before he realized that the hated sledge was fast to 

 him. Unfortunately he started off just too soon, and 

 bolted with only one trace fast. This pivoted him to star- 

 board, and he charged the line. I expected a mix-up, but 

 he stopped at the wall between Bones and Snatcher, and 

 we cast off and cleared sledge before trying again. By 

 laying the traces down the side of the sledge instead of 

 ahead we got him off his guard again, and he was away 

 before he knew what had occurred. . . . We had a bad 

 time with Chris again. He remembered having been 

 bluffed before, and could not be got near the sledge at all. 

 Three times he broke away, but fortunately he always ran 

 back among the other ponies, and not out on to the Barrier. 

 Finally we had to down him, and he was so tired with his 

 recent struggles that after one abortive attempt we got him 

 fast and away." 



Meanwhile it was not so much the difficulties of 

 sledging as the depressing blank conditions in which our 

 march was so often made, that gave us such troubles as 

 we had. The routine of a tent makes a lot of difference. 

 Scott's tent was a comfortable one to live in, and I was 

 always glad when I was told to join it, and sorry to leave. 

 He was himself extraordinarily quick, and no time was 

 ever lost by his party in camping or breaking camp. He 



