Chapter tigfytun 



PREPARATION FOR THE SOUTHERN JOURNEY 



npHE southern sledging-party was to leave the winter 

 A quarters on October 29, and immediately on- the re- 

 turn of the depot party we started to make the final prepa- 

 rations for the attempt to reach the South Pole. I 

 decided that four men should go south, I myself to be 

 one of them, and that we should take provisions for 

 ninety-one days; this amount of food, with the other 

 equipment, would bring the load , per pony up to the 

 weight fixed as a result of experiments as the maximum 

 load. It will be remembered that in outlining the scheme 

 of the expedition in the early part of 1907 I had pro- 

 posed that a party should travel to the east across the 

 Barrier surface towards King Edward VII Land, with 

 the object of solving, if possible, the mystery of the 

 Barrier itself, and securing some information about the 

 land on the other side of it. The accidents that had 

 left us with only four ponies caused me to abandon 

 this project. The ponies would have to go south, the 

 motor-car would not travel on the Barrier, and the 

 dogs were required for the southern depot journey. 

 I deemed it best to confine the efforts of the sledging- 

 parties to the two Poles, Geographical and Magnetic, 

 and to send a third party into the Western Mountains 

 with the object of studying geological conditions and, in 

 particular, of searching for fossils. 



The men selected to go with me on the southern 

 journey were Adams, Marshall and Wild. A supporting- 

 party was to accompany us for a certain distance in 



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