THE DEPOT JOURNEY 141 
never for one moment considered the abandonment of any- 
thing. 
““We packed up camp and harnessed up our ponies in 
remarkably quick time. When ready to move I had to 
decide which way to go. Obviously towards Cape Armi- 
tage was impossible, and to the eastward also, as the wind 
was from that direction, and we were already floating west 
towards the open sound. Our only hope lay to the south, 
and thither I went. We found the ponies would jump the 
intervals well. At least Punch would and the other two 
would follow him. My idea was never to separate, but to 
get everything on to one floe at a time, and then wait till it 
touched or nearly touched another in the right direction, 
and then jump the ponies over and drag the four sledges 
across ourselves. In this way we made slow, but sure pro- 
gress. While one was acting all was well, the waiting for a 
lead to close was the worst trial. Sometimes it would take 
IO minutes or more, but there was so much motion in the 
ice that sooner or later bump you would go against another 
piece, and then it was up and over. Sometimes they split, 
sometimes they bounced back so quickly that only one 
horse could get over, and then we had to wait again. We 
had to make frequent detours and were moving west all 
the time with the pack, still we were getting south, too. 
“Very little was said. Crean like most bluejackets be- 
haved as if he had done this sort of thing often before. 
Cherry, the practical, after an hour or two dug out some 
chocolate and biscuit, during one of our enforced waits, 
and distributed it. I felt at that time that food was the last 
thing on earth I wanted, and put it in my pocket ; in less 
than half an hour, though, I had eaten the lot. The ponies 
behaved as well as my companions, and jumped the floes in 
great style. After getting them on a new floe we simply 
left them, and there they stood chewing at each others’ head 
ropes or harness till we were over with the sledges and 
ready to take them on again. Their implicit trust in us was 
touching to behold. A 12-feet sledge makes an excellent 
bridge if an opening is too wide tojump. After some hours 
we saw fast ice ahead, and thanked God for it. Meanwhile 
