THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



the pony he was looking after off the floe nearest the ship 

 on to the next floe. Just at that moment Mackay ap- 

 peared round the corner from Back Door Bay with a third 

 pony attached to an empty sledge on his way back to the 

 ship to load up. Orders were shouted to him not to come 

 any further, but he did not at first grasp the situation, 

 for he continued advancing over the ice, which was now 

 breaking away more rapidly. The party working on the 

 top of Derrick Point, by shouting and waving, made him 

 realise what had occurred. He accordingly left his 

 sledge and pony and rushed over towards where the 

 other two ponies were adrift on the ice, and, by jumping 

 the widening cracks, he reached the moving floe on which 

 they were standing. This piece of ice gradually drew 

 closer to a larger piece, from which the animals would 

 be able to gain a place of safety. Mackay started 

 to try and get the pony Chinaman across the crack when 

 it was only about six inches wide, but the animal sud- 

 denly took fright, reared up on his hind legs, and 

 backing towards the edge of the floe, which had at that 

 moment opened to a width of a few feet, fell bodily into 

 the ice-cold water. It looked as if it was all over with 

 poor Chinaman, but Mackay hung on to the head rope, 

 and Davis, Mawson, Michell and one of the sailors who 

 were on the ice close by, rushed to his assistance. The 

 pony managed to get his fore feet on to the edge of the 

 ice-floe. After great difficulty a rope sling was passed 

 underneath him, and then by tremendous exertion he 

 was lifted up far enough to enable him to scramble on to 

 the ice. There he stood, wet and trembling in every 

 limb. A few seconds later the floe closed up against the 

 other one. It was providential that it had not done so 

 during the time that the pony was in the water, for in 

 that case the animal would inevitably have been squeezed 

 to death between the two huge masses of ice. A bottle 



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