ONLY FOUR PONIES LEFT 



moments. All the ponies seem to have done this, 

 but some were more addicted to the habit than the 

 others. Several of them became ill, and we were quite 

 at a loss to account for the trouble until Sandy died. 

 Then a post-mortem examination revealed the fact 

 that his stomach contained many pounds of sand, 

 and the cause of the illness of the other ponies be- 

 came apparent. We shifted them at once from the 

 place where they were picketed, so that they could 

 get no more sand, and gave them what remedial treat- 

 ment lay in our power, but two more died in spite 

 of all our efforts. The loss of the fourth pony was due 

 to poisoning. The Manchurian ponies will eat anything 

 at all that can be chewed, and this particular animal seems 

 to have secured some shavings in which chemicals had been 

 packed. The post-mortem examination showed that 

 there were distinct signs of corrosive poisoning. The 

 losses were a matter of deep concern to us. 



We were left with four ponies, Quan, Socks, Grisi 

 and Chinaman, and it is a rather curious fact that the 

 survivors were the white or light-coloured animals, while 

 disaster had befallen all the dark animals. 



The four ponies were very precious in our eyes, 

 and they were watched and guarded with keen atten- 

 tion. At first we exercised them daily by walks across 

 the hills, and later in the season, when it became too 

 dark to go across the rough ground with safety, they 

 were exercised up and down the snow-covered lake 

 known as Green Park close to the hut. Before day- 

 light grew faint the usual morning walk was over the 

 hills along the sea-coast to Sandy Beach, where they 

 always had a roll on the soft volcanic sand, and after 

 this a circuit was made homewards round the further 

 side of Blue Lake and Back Door Bay. For a change 



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