2 38 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[April 
housing of our animals. I found herein that praise was 
as justly due to our Russian boys as to my fellow 
Englishmen. 
Anton with Lashly's help had completed the furnishing 
of the stables. Neat stalls occupied the whole length 
of the c lean-to,' the sides so boarded that sprawling legs 
could not be entangled beneath and the front well covered 
with tin sheet to defeat the ' cribbcrs. 5 I could but sigh 
again to think of the stalls that must now remain empty, 
whilst appreciating that there was ample room for the 
safe harbourage of the ten beasts that remain, be the 
winter never so cold or the winds so wild. 
Later we have been able to give double space to all 
but two or three of our animals, in which they can lie 
down if they are so inclined. 
The ponies look fairly fit considering the low diet on 
which they have been kept ; their coats were surprisingly 
long and woolly in contrast with those of the animals 
I had left at Hut Point. At this time they were being 
exercised by Lashly, Anton, Demctri, Hooper, and 
Clissold, and as a rule were ridden, the sea having only 
recently frozen. The exercise ground had lain on the 
boulder-strewn sand of the home beach and extending 
towards the Skua lake ; and across these stretches I 
soon saw barebacked figures dashing at speed, and not 
a few amusing incidents in which horse and rider parted 
with abrupt lack of ceremony. I didn't think this quite 
the most desirable form of exercise for the beasts, but 
decided to leave matters as they were till our pony manager 
returned. 
