THE POLAR JOURNEY 331 



with a little water added, and a good big cup of cocoa to 

 follow. Dry hooshes also saved oil. There were cocoa and 

 tea upon which to ring the changes, or better still ' teaco ' 

 which combined the stimulating qualities of tea with the 

 food value of cocoa. Then much could be done with the 

 dessert-spoonful of raisins which was our daily whack. 

 They were good soaked in the tea, but best perhaps in with 

 the biscuits and pemmican as a dry hoosh. " You are going 

 far to earn my undying gratitude, Cherry," was a satisfied 

 remark of Scott one evening when, having saved, unbe- 

 knownst to my companions, some of their daily ration of 

 cocoa, arrowroot, sugar and raisins, I made a "chocolate 

 hoosh." But I am afraid he had indigestion next morning. 

 There were meals when we had interesting little talks, as 

 when I find in my diary that : " we had a jolly lunch meal, 

 discussing authors. Barrie, Galsworthy and others are 

 personal friends of Scott. Some one told Max Beerbohm 

 that he was like Captain Scott, and immediately, so Scott 

 assured us, he grew a beard." 



But about three weeks out the topics of conversation 

 became threadbare. From then onwards it was often that 

 whole days passed without conversation beyond the routine 

 Camp ho! All ready? Pack up. Spell ho. The latter after 

 some two hours' pulling. When man-hauling we used to 

 start pulling immediately we had the tent down, the sledge 

 packed and our harness over our bodies and ski on our feet. 

 After about a quarter of an hour the effects of the marching 

 would be felt in the warming of hands and feet and the 

 consequent thawing of our mitts and finnesko. We then 

 halted long enough for everybody to adjust their ski and 

 clothing : then on, perhaps for two hours or more, before 

 we halted again. 



Since it had been decided to lighten the ponies' weights, 

 we left at least 100 lbs. of pony forage behind when we 

 started from One Ton on the night of November 16-17 

 on our first 1 3-mile march. This was a distinct saving, and 

 instead of 695 lbs. each with which the six stronger ponies 

 left Corner Camp, they now pulled only 625 lbs. Jehu had 

 only 455 lbs. and Chinaman 448 lbs. The dog-teams had 



