144 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
utmost, and I felt that having been delivered so wonder- 
fully so far, the same Hand would not forsake us at the last. 
‘“We gave the ponies all they could eat that day. The 
Killers were too interested in us to be pleasant. They had 
a habit of bobbing up and down perpendicularly, so as 
to see over the edge of a floe, in looking for seals. The 
huge black and yellow heads with sickening pig eyes only 
a few yards from us at times, and always around us, are 
among the most disconcerting recollections I have of that 
day. The immense fins were bad enough, but when they 
started a perpendicular dodge they were positively beastly. 
As the day wore on skua gulls, looking upon us as certain 
carrion, settled down comfortably near us to await develop- 
ments. The swell, however, was getting less and less and it 
resolved itself into a question of speed, as to whether the 
wind or Captain Scott would reach us first. 
‘Crean had got up intothe Barrier at great risks to him- 
self as I gathered afterwards from his very modest account. 
He had reached Captain Scott some time after his [Scott’s] 
meeting with Wilson.t I heard that at the time Captain 
Scott was very angry with me for not abandoning every- 
thing and getting away safely myself. For my own part I 
must say that the abandoning of the ponies was the one 
thing that had never entered my head. It was a long way 
round, but at 7 p.m. he arrived at the edge of the Barrier 
opposite us with Oates and Crean. Everything was still, 
and Cherry and I could have got on safe ice at any time 
during the last half hour by using the sledge as a ladder. 
A big overturned fragment had jambed in the lane, be- 
tween a high floe and the Barrier edge, and, there being 
no wind, it remained there. However, there was the con- 
sideration of the ponies, so we waited. 
‘Scott, instead of blowing me up, was too relieved at 
our safety to be anything but pleased. I said: “What 
about the ponies and the sledges?’ He said: “1 don’t 
care a damn about the ponies and sledges. It’s you I want, 
1 Wilson camped with the two dog-teams on the land, and in the morning saw us 
floating on the ice-floes through his field-glasses. He made his way along the peninsula 
until he could descend on to the Barrier, where he joined Scott 
