THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



low, the light bad, and the weather uncertain, is a rather 

 severe strain on man and beast. For this reason, man- 

 hauling was the order for the first journeys. 



During the winter I had given a great deal of earnest 

 consideration to the question of the date at which the 

 party that was to march towards the Pole should start 

 from the hut. The goal that we hoped to attain lay over 

 880 statute miles to the south, and the brief summer 

 was all too short a time in which to march so far into 

 the unknown and return to winter quarters. The ship 

 would have to leave for the north about the end of 

 February, for the ice would then be closing in, and, 

 moreover, we could not hope to carry on our sledges 

 much more than a three months' supply of provisions, 

 or anything like full rations. I finally decided that 

 the Southern Party should leave the winter quarters 

 about October 28, for if we started earlier it was probable 

 that the ponies would suffer from the severe cold at 

 nights, and we would gain no advantage from getting 

 away early in the season if, as a result, the ponies were 

 incapacitated before we had made much progress. The 

 ponies would be sure to sweat when pulling their heavy 

 loads during the day, and a very low temperature when 

 they were resting would be dangerous in view of the 

 fact that we could not hope to provide them with shelter 

 from the winds. 



The date for the departure of the Southern Party 

 having been fixed, it became necessary to arrange for 

 the laying of the depot during the early spring, and I 

 thought that the first step towards this should be a 

 preliminary journey on the Barrier surface, in order to 

 gain an idea of the conditions that would be met with, 

 and to ascertain whether the motor-car would be of 

 service, at any rate, for the early portion of the journey. 

 The sun had not yet returned and the temperature was 



222 



