START OF DEP6T JOURNEY 



bury the stores and obliterate any marks set up for 

 our guidance. I picked a depot party consisting of 

 Adams, Marshall, Wild, Joyce and Marston, with myself 

 as the sixth man. I did not propose to take either 

 ponies or dogs, for reasons I have already explained. 

 We took two tents, three men going in each, and two 

 three-man sleeping-bags, for we expected to meet with 

 very low temperatures. The disadvantages of these 

 bags, as I have already stated, is that one's sleep is 

 liable to be disturbed, but this would not matter so 

 much on a comparatively short journey, and we would 

 probably need the additional warmth derived from 

 one another's bodies. There is no doubt in my mind 

 that for extended journeys in the polar regions the use 

 of one-man bags is desirable. Apart from all other 

 considerations, it is a great comfort to have a little 

 home of one's own into which to retire when the day's 

 work is done, secure from all interruptions. The open- 

 ing can be adjusted just as the occupant pleases, whereas 

 if there are two or three men in the one bag, one may 

 think the atmosphere suffocating, while another objects 

 to the draught. 



The depot party left Cape Royds on September 22, 

 with a load of about 170 lb. per man, and made the first 

 part of the journey in the motor-car. Day was able 

 to get the machine, with the sledges towed behind and 

 all the members of the party either on the car or the 

 sledges, as far as Inaccessible Island, moving at a speed 

 of about six miles an hour. I heard afterwards that 

 the car ran back to the hut, a distance of eight miles, 

 in twenty minutes. We took the sledges on ourselves 

 over a fairly good surface, and spent the first night at 

 the Discovery hut. Three of the puppies had followed 

 the car when we started away from the winter quarters, 



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