4 io WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



only new sledges and sledging stores but also fourteen 

 dogs from Kamchatka and seven mules, with their food and 

 equipment. The dogs were big and fat, but the only ones 

 which proved of much service for sledging were Snowy, a 

 nice white dog, and Bullett. It was Oates' idea that mules 

 might prove a better form of transport on the Barrier than 

 ponies. Scott therefore wrote to Sir Douglas Haig, then 

 C.-in-C. in India, that if he failed to reach the Pole in the 

 summer of 1 9 1 1-1 2, " it is my intention to make a second 

 attempt in the following season provided fresh transport 

 can be brought down : the circumstances making it neces- 

 sary to plan to sacrifice the transport animals used in any 

 attempt. 



" Before directing more ponies to be sent down I have 

 thoroughly discussed the situation with Captain Oates, and 

 he has suggested that mules would be better than ponies 

 for our work and that trained Indian Transport Mules 

 would be ideal. It is evident already that our ponies have 

 not a uniform walking pace and that in other small ways 

 they will be troublesome to us although they are handy 

 little beasts." 



The Indian Government not only sent seven mules but 

 when they arrived we found that they had been most care- 

 fully trained and equipped. In India they were in the 

 charge of Lieutenant George Pulleyn, and the care and 

 thought which had been spent upon them could not have 

 been exceeded : the equipment was also extremely good and 

 well adapted to the conditions, while most of the improve- 

 ments made by us as the result of a year's experience were 

 already foreseen and provided. The mules themselves, by 

 name Lai Khan, Gulab, Begum, Ranee, Abdullah, Pyaree 

 and Khan Sahib, were beautiful animals. 



Atkinson would soon have to start on his travels again. 

 Before we left Scott at the top of the Beardmore he gave 

 him orders to take the two dog-teams South in the event 

 of Meares having to return home, as seemed likely. This 

 was not meant in any way to be a relief journey. Scott 

 said that he was not relying upon the dogs ; and that 

 in view of the sledging in the following year, the dogs 



