DOGS' AND PONIES' WAYS 
J 77 
io or 12 miles a day. I think they will have little difficulty 
in increasing this distance. 
For the dogs the surface has been bad, and one or 
another of us on either sledge has been running a good 
part of the time. But we have covered 23 miles : three 
marches out. We have four days' food for them and ought 
to get in very easily. 
As we camp late the temperature is evidently very low 
and there is a low drift. Conditions are beginning to be 
severe on the Barrier and I shall be glad to get the ponies 
into more comfortable quarters. 
Sunday, February 19. — Started 10 p.m. Camped 6.30. 
Nearly 26 miles to our credit. The dogs went very well 
and the surface became excellent after the first 5 or 6 miles. 
At the Bluff Camp, No. 11, we picked up Evans' track 
and found that he must have made excellent progress. 
No. 10 Camp was much snowed up : I should imagine our 
light blizzard was severely felt along this part of the 
route. We must look out to-morrow for signs of Evans 
being * held up.' 
The old tracks show better here than on the softer 
surface. During this journey both ponies and dogs have 
had what under ordinary circumstances would have been 
a good allowance of food, yet both are desperately hungry. 
Both cat their own excrement. With the ponies it does 
not seem so horrid, as there must be a good deal of grain, 
&c, which is not fully digested. It is the worst side of dog 
driving. All the rest is diverting. The way in which they 
keep up a steady jog trot for hour after hour is wonderful. 
Their legs seem steel springs, fatigue unknown — for at 
VOL. r. N 
