SOUTH 
party throiigliout the following day, and they did not get away 
from their camp until sliortly before midnight. " The surface 
was abominably soft/' wrote Mackintosh. " We harnessed 
ourselves on to tlie sledge and with the dogs made a start, but 
we had a struggle to get of?. We had not gone very far when 
in deeper snow we stopped dead. Try as we would, no move- 
ment could be produced. Keluctantly we unloaded and began 
the tedious task of relaying. The work, in spite of the lighter 
load on the sledge, proved terrific for ourselves and for the 
dogs. We struggled for four hours, and then set camp to 
await the evening, when the sun would not be so fierce and 
the surface might be better. I must say I feel somewhat 
despondent, as we are not getting on as well as I expected, 
nor do we find it as easy as one would gather from reading." 
The tw^o parties met again that day. Joyce also had been 
compelled to relay his load, and all hands laboured strenuously 
and advanced slowly. They reached the edge of the Barrier 
on the night of January 30 and climbed an easy slope to the 
Barrier surface, about thirty feet above the sea-ice. The dogs 
were showing signs of fatigue, and when Mackintosh camped at 
6.30 a.m. on January 31, he reckoned that the distance covered 
in twelve and a half hom^s had been about two and a half miles. 
The men had killed a seal at the edge of the sea-ice and placed 
the meat on a cairn for future use. One dog, having refused 
to pull, had been left behind with a good feed of meat, and 
Mackintosh hoped the animal would follow. The experiences 
of the party during the days that followed can be indicated by 
some extracts from Mackintosh's diary. 
" Sunday, January Zl. — Started off this afternoon at 3 p.m. 
Surface too dreadful for words. We sink into snow at times 
up to our knees, the dogs struggling out of it panting and 
making great efforts. I think the soft snow must be accounted 
for by a phenomenally fine summer without much wind. After 
proceeding about 1000 yds. I spotted some poles on our star- 
board side. We shaped course for these and found Captain 
Scott's Safety Camp. We unloaded a relay here and went back 
with empty sledge for the second relay. It took us four hours 
to do just this short distance. It is exasperating. After we 
248 
