THE LOSS OF "DOCTOR" 



on a table, and then incline it fifty degrees one way, 

 and back again till it reaches fifty degrees on the other 

 side, and he will realise the length of arc through which 

 the masts and deck of the Nimrod swung. It was only 

 natural, under these circumstances, that the sturdy little 

 ponies had their strength taxed to the utmost to keep 

 their footing at all. It was impracticable to sling them, 

 for they were only half broken, and the attempt to put 

 a sling under one drove it nearly crazy with fright. 

 All we could do was to try and soothe them, and the 

 animals evidently appreciated the human voice and 

 touch. Buckley had a wonderful way with them, and 

 they seemed to understand that he was trying to help 

 them. 



Occasionally there were clear patches of sky to the 

 south and east between the squalls. We had sleet for 

 the first time on January 5, and the wind, ranging be- 

 tween west, south, and south-west, was chilly for the 

 height of summer, the temperature being about 46° Fahr. 

 We passed large masses of floating kelp, which may have 

 torn from the islands to the south-west of us, for at noon 

 on January 5, we were still north of the fiftieth parallel, 

 a latitude corresponding to the South of England. Our 

 course lay practically south, for I wanted to enter the 

 pack ice somewhere about the 178th meridian east, pre- 

 vious experience having shown that the pack is less dense 

 about that meridian than it is further west. About 9 

 p.m. that night, during an extra heavy roll, one of the 

 ponies slipped down in its stall, and when the ship rolled 

 the opposite way, turned right over on its back, as it 

 could not regain its footing. We tried everything in 

 our power to get the poor beast up again, but there was 

 no room to work in the narrow stall, and in the darkness 

 and rushing water it would have been madness to 

 have tried to shift the other ponies out of the adjacent 



49 



