THE SEARCH JOURNEY 491 



thought we were not looking — but as soon as they realized 

 they were meant to eat it they went on hunger-strike again. 

 But during halts at cairns Rani and Pyaree would stand 

 solemnly chewing the same piece of rope from different 

 ends. Abdullah always led the line, and followed Wright's 

 ski tracks faithfully, so that if another man was ahead and 

 Wright turned aside Abdullah always turned too. It was 

 quite a manoeuvre for Wright to read the sledge-meter at 

 the back of the sledge. As for Begum: " Got Begum out 

 of a soft patch by rolling her over." 1 



On the whole the mules failed to adapt themselves to 

 this life, and as such must at present be considered to 

 be a failure for Antarctic work. Certainly those of our 

 ponies which had the best chance to adapt themselves went 

 farthest, such as Nobby and Jimmy Pigg, both of whom 

 had experience of Barrier sledging before they started on 

 the Polar Journey. 



November 1 1 . Early morning. It has cleared at last, the 

 disturbance rolling away to the east during our first march. 

 The surface was very bad and the mules were not going 

 well. At this time last year many of the ponies were still 

 quite difficult to make stand just before starting. But these 

 mules start off now most dolefully. I am afraid they will 

 not all get back to Hut Point. 



Two and a half miles after lunch, i.e. just over forty 

 miles from the depot, we turned out to the eastward and 

 found the gear left by the Second Return Party, when 

 Evans was so ill. The theodolite, which belonged to Evans, 

 is I believe there, but though we dug all round we were 

 unable to find it. The ski were all upright, drifted to within 

 six inches of the shoes. Most of the gear was clothing, 

 which we have left, with the skis, in the tank. We brought 

 on a roll of Birdie's photographs, taken on the plateau, and 

 three geological specimens: deep-seated rocks I think. 

 This was all of importance that there was there. 



The N Ration, which we have now come to, consists 

 of about 40 oz. of food. At present, doing the work we 

 are doing, and with these high temperatures, - 23 when 



1 Wright's diary. 



