CAPTAIN SCOTT’S OWN STORY . 
249 
id Hooper, 
ex-motor 
no vs/ return. 
»S and 
«$o forward. 
E^Pony 5^ Pony "Two more 
killed, killed. Ponies 
killed 
.-.slaughter camp* 
> Remaining 5 
T Ponies killed 
85 ° 30 ' 
Dec 5 ^. 8 "’ 
Four Days 
O e I ay — 
R cv $ i n $ 
rd. 
IE Men 
hauling sledges, 
and 2 Men 
driving do^s, 
<Jo forward. 
ASSISTANCE TO THE READER IN FOLLOWING THE MOVEMENTS OF THE PARTY. 
the slope at five and started on after tea on 
the down grade. On this we had to pull 
almost as hard as on the upward slope, but 
could just manage to get along on s.ki. 
We camped at 9.15, when a heavy wind 
coming down the Glacier suddenly fell on us, 
but 1 had decided to camp before, as Evans's 
party could not keep up.” Those who had 
hauled a sledge since the motors broke down 
four hundred miles away were naturally not 
so fresh as the others. “ As for myself I 
never felt fitter, and my party can easily 
hold its own. Evans (P.O.), of course, is a 
tower of strength, but Oates and Wilson arc 
doing splendidly also. 
“ All this soft snow is an aftermath of our 
prolonged storm. Hereabouts Shackleton 
found hard blue ice. It seems an extra- 
ordinary difference in fortune, and at every 
step S/s luck becomes more evident.” 
A Graphic Picture of Sledge-Troubles. 
December nth. The lower Glacier depot 
made, the dog-team came up a four hours’ 
march before finally turning homewards. 
The loads were transhipped. An anxious 
moment ensued, followed by difficulties first 
with one team, then with another. 
“ Could we pull our full loads or not ? 
My own party got away first, and, to my joy, 
I found we could make fairly good headway. 
Every now and again the sledge sank in a 
soft patch which brought us up, but we 
learned to treat such occasions with patience. 
We got sideways to the sledge and hauled it 
out. Evans getting out of his ski to get better 
purchase. The great thing is to keep the 
sledge moving, and for an hour or more there 
were dozens of critical moments when it all 
but stopped, and not a few when it brought 
up altogether. The latter were very trying- 
arid tiring. But suddenly the surface grew 
more uniform and we more accustomed to the 
game, for after a long stop to let the other 
parties come up I started at six and ran on 
till seven, pulling easily without a halt at 
the rate of about two miles an hour. I was 
very jubilant ; all difficulties seemed to be 
vanishing ; but unfortunately our history 
was not repeated. One team had a man 
hampered by a touch of snow-blindness, the 
other had not quite mastered the trick of 
getting under way again after checking in 
the soft snow .” 
But next morning, the 12th, it was the turn 
of Scott’s own team to “ make the heaviest 
weather of the work. We got bogged again 
and again, and, do what we would, the sledge 
dragged like lead. The others were working- 
hard, but nothing to be compared with us. 
At 2.30 1 halted for lunch pretty well 
cooked, and there was disclosed the secret of 
our trouble in a thin film with some hard 
knots of ice on the runners. Evans’s team 
had been sent off in advance, and we didn’t 
couldn’t !- catch them, but they saw us 
camp and break camp, and followed suit. 
I really dreaded starting after lunch, but 
after some trouble to break the sledge out we 
went ahead without a hitch, and in a mile or 
two recovered our leading place with obvious 
ability to keep it. 
“It is evident that what 1 expected has 
occurred. The Whole of the lower valley is 
filled with snow from the recent storm, and 
if we had not ski we should he hopelessly 
