19"] THE SECOND PONY SHOT 477 
at 4.20, just catching the party at the lunch camp at 8.30. 
Things got better half way ; the sky showed signs of 
clearing and the steering improved. Now, at lunch, it is 
getting thick again. When will the wretched blizzard be 
over ? The walking is better for ponies, worse for men ; 
there is nearly everywhere a hard crust some 3 to 6 inches 
down. Towards the end of the march we crossed a 
succession of high hard south-easterly sastrugi, widely 
dispersed. I don't know what to make of these. 
Second march almost as horrid as the first. Wind 
blowing strong from the south, shifting to S.E. as the 
snowstorms fell on us, when we could see little or nothing, 
and the driving snow hit us stingingly in the face. The 
general impression of all this dirty weather is that it 
spreads in from the S.E. We started at 4 a.m., and I 
think I shall stick to that custom for the present. These 
last four marches have been fought for, but completed 
without hitch, and, though we camped in a snowstorm, 
there is a more promising look in the sky, and if only for 
a time the wind has dropped and the sun shines brightly, 
dispelling some of the gloomy results of the distressing 
marching. 
Chinaman, * The Thunderbolt,? has been shot to-night. 
Plucky little chap, he has stuck it out well and leaves the 
stage but a few days before his fellows. We have only 
four bags of forage (each one 30 lbs.) left, but these should 
give seven marches with all the remaining animals, and 
we are less than 90 miles from the Glacier. Bowers tells 
me that the barometer was phenomenally low both during 
this blizzard and the last. This has certainly been the 
