I9II] AT THE PLACE OF THE PONY DISASTER 219 
we came on sledge tracks, and these puzzled us greatly. 
We thought they must have been made by a depot party 
but could see no depot. I wrote ' It is not possible it has 
gone out, as undoubtedly some of the Barrier has ? ' 
As a matter of fact these were the tracks of the rescue 
party who had tried to save the ponies when Bowers, 
Cherry-Garrard, and Crean went adrift only ten days 
before. In view of our experiences the next few days 
I was glad we did not know of this disaster. 
A strong drift was blowing when we broke camp, but 
we could see the sun and had bearings, so we moved round 
the open water to the north. After two miles we saw 
something black which turned out to be a fodder depot. 
We built it up, for it was nearly invisible, and left a note 
for the Depot Party, which was waste labour, for they had 
all returned a week before. 
The wind increased in force, but we kept on till noon, 
when we came to open water and a great crack in the 
Barrier. Here the surface rose several feet quite sharply 
and Wright nearly slipped in as we were crossing. The 
drift was getting very much worse and we could see nothing 
a few yards ahead. I felt this was a bad position and 
turned inland ; we pulled about three-quarters of an hour 
and could not get any farther through the blinding snow. 
We managed to pitch the tent and then sat down to wait 
till the blizzard would let us move somewhere less exciting 
and farther from the breaking edge of the Barrier. Here, 
however, we stopped all through the next day and until 
ten on the third day. 
It was the worst blizzard I experienced while sledging 
