THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



ture at noon was only plus 8° Fahr., and the little wind 

 that there was has been extremely cold. The wind 

 veers round and round the compass, and the clouds 

 move in every direction. The surface of the Barrier 

 was better to-day, but still the ponies sank in 8 in. at 

 least. The sastrugi point towards the south-east, this 

 being the direction of the most usual wind here. This 

 evening it cleared, and we could see land almost ahead, 

 and the great mass of land abaft the beam to the north 

 of Barne Inlet. Our day's march was 15 miles 450 

 yards. We are now south of the 81st parallel, and 

 feel that we are well on the road to our wished-for goal. 

 This is now our second depot, and we intend to leave 

 about 80 lb. of pony meat, one tin of biscuits (27 lb.), 

 some sugar and one tin of oil to see us back to Depot 

 A. It is late now, for all arrangements for the depot 

 took time. There was a lot of work in the arranging of 

 the sledges for the remaining three ponies: packing stores, 

 skinning Chinaman and cutting him up, all in a low 

 temperature. 



Note. — The killing of the ponies was not pleasant work, but we 

 had the satisfaction of knowing that the animals had been well fed 

 and well treated up to the last, and that they suffered no pain. When 

 we had to kill a pony, we threw up a snow mound to leeward of the 

 camp, so that no smell of blood could come down wind, and took 

 the animal behind this, out of sight of the others. As a matter of 

 fact, the survivors never displayed any interest at all in the pro- 

 ceedings, even the report of the revolver used in the killing failing 

 to attract their attention. The sound did not travel far on the wide 

 open plain. The revolver was held about 3 in. from the forehead 

 of the victim and one shot was sufficient to cause instant death. The 

 throat of the animal was cut immediately and the blood allowed to 

 run away. Then Marshall and Wild would skin the carcass, and 

 we took the meat off the legs, shoulders and back. In the case of 

 Chinaman the carcase was opened and the liver and undercut secured, 

 but the job was such a lengthy one that we did not repeat it in the 

 case of the other animals. Within a very short time after killing 



286 



