THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



sometimes they were taken on to the snow slopes and 

 foothills of Mount Erebus, on the level stretches of 

 which they were ridden, but this was stopped as soon 

 as there was any fear of them stumbling in the fading 

 daylight. 



During the winter months those of us who generally 

 took the ponies out for exercise got to learn the different 

 traits and character of each individual animal. Every 

 one of them seemed to possess more cunning and 

 sense than the ordinary broken-in horse at home, and 

 this cunning, when put into practice to gain any 

 end of their own, was a constant source of petty annoy- 

 ance to us. Quan was the worst offender, his particular 

 delight being to bite through his head rope and attack 

 the bales of fodder stacked behind him; then, when 

 we put a chain on to prevent this, he deliberately 

 rattled it against the side of the hut, which kept us 

 awake. The wall of the hut was sheathed with galvan- 

 ised iron, and shortly after the ponies entered the stable, 

 as they started to gnaw the ropes, a line of wire had 

 been stretched fore and aft along the stables to which 

 to make fast the head rope. Quan used to take this 

 line between his teeth and pull back as far as possible 

 and then let it go with a bang. We tried keeping 

 his nose-bag on, but within a few hours he would have 

 worked a hole in this and started again on the rope. 

 On going into the stables to try and stop his mischief, 

 one's annoyance invariably passed away on seeing the 

 intelligent look on the delinquent's face, as he rolled 

 his eye round and leered at one as though to say: 

 "Ha! Got the best of you again." At last old Quan 

 was tethered by his fore and hind legs, the ridge rope 

 was taken away, and peace reigned, as a rule, in the 

 stables. He had at first suffered from eating sand, and we 

 had to use great care to prevent him getting at it again, 



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