THE POLAR JOURNEY 339 



movement of a glacier away from the land which bounds 

 it. In this case a mass of many hundred miles of Barrier 

 has moved away from the mountains, and the disturbance 

 is correspondingly great. Shackleton has described how 

 he approached the Gateway, as he named the passage 

 between Mount Hope and the mainland, by means of 

 which he passed through on to the Beardmore Glacier. As 

 he and his companions were exploring the way they came 

 upon an enormous chasm, 80 feet wide and 300 feet deep, 

 which barred their path. Moving along to the right they 

 found a place where the chasm was filled with snow, and 

 here they crossed to the land some miles ahead. At our 

 Southern Barrier Depot we reckoned we were some forty- 

 four miles from this Gateway and in three more marches 

 we hoped to be camped under this land. 



Christopher was shot at the depot. He was the only 

 pony who did not die instantaneously. Perhaps Oates was 

 not so calm as usual, for Chris was his own horse though 

 such a brute. Just as Oates fired he moved, and charged 

 into the camp with the bullet in his head. He was caught 

 with difficulty, nearly giving Keohane a bad bite, led back 

 and finished. We were well rid of him : while he was 

 strong he fought, and once the Barrier had tamed him, as 

 we were not able to do, he never pulled a fair load. He 

 could have gone several more days, but there was not 

 enough pony food to take all the animals forward. We 

 began to wonder if we had done right to leave so much 

 behind. Each pony provided at least four days' food for 

 the dog-teams, some of them more, and there was quite a 

 lot of fat on them — even on Jehu. This was comforting, 

 as going to prove that their hardships were not too great. 

 Also we put the undercut into our own hoosh, and it was 

 very good, though we had little oil to cook it. 



We had been starting later each night, in order that the 

 transition from night to day marching might be gradual. 

 For we intended to march by day when we started pull- 

 ing up the glacier, and there were no ponies to rest when 

 the sun was high. It may be said therefore that our next 

 march was on December 2. 



