ONWARD
The morning of the 9th was fine, calm and clear, and, as soon as we
had dug the sledges out of the drift and breakfasted, we set out to
find a track among the crevasses. Our hunt for crevasses was successful
enough, for we discovered all sorts from narrow cracks to ugly chasms
with no bottom visible, but to find a track through them was beyond our
powers.
There was indeed nothing for it but to trust to Providence, and having
got under way we got over the first few crevasses without difficulty.
And then all of a sudden Chinaman went down a crack which ran parallel
to our course.
Adams tried to pull him out and he struggled gamely, but it was not
until Wild and I left our sledges and hauled along Chinaman's sledge
that, just in time, he managed to get on to firm ice, for three feet
more and it would have been all up with the Southern Journey. The
three-foot crack opened out into a great fathomless chasm, and down
that would have gone the pony, all our cooking gear and biscuits and
half the oil, and probably Adams as well.
But when things seem to be as hopeless as possible they often take
a sudden change for the better, and in our case this was the last
crevasse we encountered for some time, and at length, with a gradually
improving surface, we were really able to push along.
During the day we knocked off over 14 miles of those intervening
between us and our goal, and we turned in for the night in a more
cheerful frame of mind. Our rest, however, was disturbed by the
mischievous Quan eating away the straps on his rug, and Grisi and Socks
fighting over it. The propensities of Manchurian ponies for eating
peculiar things must certainly be allowed to have their drawbacks.
Such accidents may seem very trivial, but they meant work for us in
repairing the damage, and when one is thoroughly tired after a day's
march one does not welcome any unlooked for labour.
To our astonishment during our march in the afternoon we came across
the track of an Adelie penguin, and where on earth the bird had come
from was a mystery. It had been travelling on its stomach for a long
way, and it had at least fifty miles to travel before it could reach
food and water, and the nearest water in the direction from which it
had come was over fifty miles away. Among penguins this bird ought, I
think, to have been credited with an adventurous disposition.
With better weather for the next few days we made good progress towards
the depot where 167 lb. of pony food was lying, and our appetites were
already too good for the amount of food we were allowing ourselves.
Perhaps those who have never known what it is to be desperately hungry
will be disgusted at us for remembering that when the ponies had done
their work we should be able to add horse-meat to our rations. But I
can say with truth that until the ponies had to be killed they were
treated with a liberality that we denied sternly to ourselves.
[Illustration: Cape Barne and Inaccessible Island by Moonlight]
To pick up a depot which is only a tiny speck in a vast snowy plain
and is nearly sixty miles from the nearest land, is like picking up a
buoy in the North Sea with only distant mountains for bearings, and I
was most anxious that we should reach it before the glorious weather
broke up, for there was stored not only the pony feed but also a most
valuable gallon of oil.
Imagine then my delight when, on the evening of the 14th, Wild, who was
outside the camp looking through the Goertz glasses, shouted that he
could see the depot. We rushed out at once, and there were the flag and
sledge to be seen plainly through the glasses. On the next morning we
found everything intact and the flag waving merrily in the breeze, and
we camped there for a few hours so that we could distribute weights and
parcel our provision to be left there for our return journey.
It went to our hearts to leave a tin of sardines and a pot of black
currant jam which we had intended for our feast on Christmas Day, but
every ounce of additional weight was so important, that although we
felt that we ought to take as much food as we possibly could these
luxuries had to be left behind.
We were on again soon after one o'clock and when we camped that night
we built a snow mound as a guide to our homeward track, and decided
to build one at each camp we made. Having two shovels with us, in
ten minutes a mound 6 or 7 ft. high could be built, and although we
wondered whether our tracks would remain longer than our mounds, or our
mounds longer than the tracks, we thought it most advisable to neglect
no precautions. And as a matter of fact these mounds remained after
the sledge tracks had vanished, and were a great comfort to us on our
journey back.
Everything continued to go splendidly for us, and I could not help
contrasting the progress of our last few days with the time six years
before, when I was toiling along five miles a day over the same ground.
On November 16, for instance, we covered over 17 miles, a record day
for us; and also every one was in splendid health, my eyes (which had
been attacked by snow blindness) were better, and although split lips
prevented us laughing we were going straight as a die to the south--a
reason sufficient in itself for our cheerfulness.
Another opportunity for contrast was that between our parsimony in the
way of food and Quan's wastefulness. To economise we saved three lumps
of sugar each day so that in time we might build up a reserve stock,
while Quan with his marvellous digestion preferred to eat a yard of
creosoted rope than his proper bait, and often in sheer wantonness
threw the food given to him all over the snow.
By this time the work was beginning to tell upon the ponies, especially
upon Chinaman, but all of them continued to work splendidly in their
own particular way, and naturally we were anxious to advance our
food-supply as far as possible south before the ponies gave out.
Quan plodded stolidly through everything, possibly thinking of
what tricks he would play at night but at the same time working
magnificently; Chinaman was the first to show signs of collapse, but
his spirit was willing though his strength was weakening; Grisi and
Socks took all soft places with a rush.
But in spite of the hard labours of the day we always felt confident
that the ponies would enjoy themselves in their peculiar way at night,
and on one occasion I had to go out to prevent Socks from biting and
swallowing lumps out of Quan's tail. If we had ever anticipated that
they would have played such games, we should have taken a longer wire
to tether them and keep them apart.