THE FIRST WINTER 219 
never hit, a condition to which they were clearly unaccus- 
tomed. They lived far better than they had before, and 
all this was done for them in spite of the conditions under 
which we ourselves lived. We became very fond of our 
beasts, but we could not be blind to their faults. The mind 
of a horse is a very limited concern, relying almost entirely 
upon memory. He rivals our politicians in that he has 
little real intellect. Consequently, when the pony was faced 
with conditions different from those to which he was accus- 
tomed,he showed but little adaptability ; and when you add 
to this frozen harness and rugs, with all their straps and 
buckles and lashings, an incredible facility for eating any- 
thing within reach including his own tethering ropes and 
the headstalls, fringes and whatnots of his companions, to- 
gether with our own scanty provisions and a general wish 
to do anything except the job of the moment, it must be 
admitted that the pony leader’s lot was full of occasions for 
bad temper. Nevertheless leaders and ponies were on the 
best of terms (excepting always Christopher), whichis really 
not surprising when you come to think that most of the 
leaders were sailors whose love of animals is profound. 
A lean-to roof was built against the northern side of the 
hut, and the ends and open side were boarded up. This 
building when buttressed by the bricks of coal which 
formed our fuel, and drifted up with snow by the blizzards, 
formed an extremely sheltered and even warm stable. The 
ponies stood in stalls with their heads towards the hut 
and divided from it by a corridor; the bars which kept 
them in carried also their food boxes. They lay down very 
little, the ground was too cold, and Oates was of opinion 
that litter would not have pencnred them if we had had 
space in the ship to bring it. The floor of their stall was 
formed of the gravel on which the hut was built. On any 
future occasion it might be worth consideration whether 
a flooring of wood might add to their comfort. As you 
walked down this narrow passage you passed a line of heads, 
many of which would have a nip at you in the semi-dark- 
ness, and at the far end Oates had rigged up for himself a 
blubber stove, more elaborate than the one we had made 
