148 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
negotiate about forty floes to reach the animals. It was 
pretty easy going, though, and we brought them along with 
great success as far as the two nearest floes. At this place 
the ice was jambed. 
‘“* Nobby cleared the last jump splendidly, when sud- 
denly in the open water pond on one side a school of over 
a dozen of the terrible whales arose. This must have 
flurried my horse just as he was jumping, as instead of 
going straight he jumped [sideways] and just missed the 
floe with his hind legs. It was another horrible situation, 
but Scott rushed Nobby up on the Barrier, while Titus, 
Cherry and I struggled with poor old Uncle Bill. Why 
the whales did not come under the ice and attack him I 
cannot say—perhaps they were full of seal, perhaps they 
were so engaged in looking at us on the top of the floe that 
they forgot to look below; anyhow, we got him safely as 
far as [the bottom of the Barrier cliff], pulling him through 
the thin ice towards a low patch of brash. 
“‘ Captain Scott was afraid of something happening to us 
with those devilish whales so close, and was for abandoning 
the horse right away. I had no eyes or ears for anything 
but the horse just then, and getting on to the thin brash 
ice got the Alpine rope fast to each of the pony’s forefeet. 
Crean was too blind to do anything but hold the rescued 
horse on the Barrier, but the other four of us pulled might 
and main till we got the old horse out and lying on his side. 
The brash ice was so thin that, had a ‘ Killer’ come up then 
he would have scattered it, and the lot of us into the water 
like chaff. I was sick with disappointment when I found 
that my horse could not rise. Titus said: ‘ He’s done; we 
shall never get him up alive.’ The cold water and shock 
on top of all his recent troubles, had been too much for 
the undefeated old sportsman. In vain I tried to get him to 
his feet ; three times he tried and then fell over backwards 
into the water again. At that moment a new danger arose. 
The whole piece of Barrier itself started to subside. 
“Tt had evidently been broken before, and the tide was 
doing the rest. We were ordered up and it certainly was 
all too necessary; still Titus and I hung over the old Uncle 
