THE POLAR JOURNEY 383 



last two days. He was running short of food, having only 

 biscuit crumbs, tea, some cornflour, and half a cup of pem- 

 mican. He was therefore taking fifty biscuits, and a day's 

 provisions for two men from each of our units. He had 

 killed one American dog some camps back : if he killed 

 more he was going to kill Krisravitza who he said was 

 the fattest and laziest. We shall take on thirty biscuits 

 short." 1 Meares was to have turned homewards with the 

 two dog-teams in lat. 8 1 ° 1 5' . Scott took him on to approxi- 

 mately 8 3 2S' • The dogs had the ponies on which to feed: 

 to make up the deficiency of man-food we went one biscuit 

 a day short when going up the Beardmore : but the dogs 

 went back slower than was estimated and his provisions were 

 insufficient. It was evident that the dog-teams would arrive 

 too late and be too done to take out the food which had 

 still to be sledged to One Ton for the three parties return- 

 ing from the plateau. It was uncertain whether a man- 

 hauling party with such of this food as they could drag 

 would arrive at the depot before us. 2 We might have to 

 travel the 130 geographical miles from One Ton to Hut 

 Point on the little food which was already at that depot and 

 we were saving food by going on short rations to meet this 

 contingency if it arose. Judge therefore our joy when we 

 reached One Ton in the evening of January 15 to find 

 three of the five XS rations which were necessary for the 

 three parties. A man-hauling party consisting of Day, 

 Nelson, Hooper and Clissold had brought out this food ; 

 they left a note saying the crevasses near Corner Camp 

 were bad and open. Day and Hooper had reached Cape 

 Evans from the Barrier 3 on December 2 1 : they started 

 out again on this depot-laying trip on December 26. 



It is a common experience for men who have been 

 hungry to be ill after reaching plenty of food. Atkinson 

 was not at all well during our journey in to Hut Point, 

 which we reached without difficulty on January 26. 



When I was looking for data concerning the return of 

 the Last Supporting Party of which no account has been 

 published, I wrote to Lashly and asked him to meet and 



1 My own diary. 2 See p. 412- 3 See p. 335. 



