To my surprise the fast ice extended past the Cape and we were able to round it into the North Bay.  Here we saw the weather screen on Wind Vane Hill, and a moment later turned a small headland and brought the hut in full view.  It was intact—­stables, outhouses and all; evidently the sea had left it undisturbed.  I breathed a huge sigh of relief.  We watched two figures at work near the stables and wondered when they would see us.  In a moment or two they did so, and fled inside the hut to carry the news of our arrival.  Three minutes later all nine occupants [20] were streaming over the floe towards us with shouts of welcome.  There were eager inquiries as to mutual welfare and it took but a minute to learn the most important events of the quiet station life which had been led since our departure.  These under the circumstances might well be considered the deaths of one pony and one dog.  The pony was that which had been nicknamed Hackenschmidt from his vicious habit of using both fore and hind legs in attacking those who came near him.  He had been obviously of different breed from the other ponies, being of lighter and handsomer shape, suggestive of a strain of Arab blood.  From no cause which could be discovered either by the symptoms of his illness or the post-mortem held by Nelson could a reason be found for his death.  In spite of the best feeding and every care he had gradually sickened until he was too weak to stand, and in this condition there had been no option but to put him out of misery.  Anton considers the death of Hackenschmidt to have been an act of ’cussedness’—­the result of a determination to do no work for the Expedition!!  Although the loss is serious I remember doubts which I had as to whether this animal could be anything but a source of trouble to us.  He had been most difficult to handle all through, showing a vicious, intractable temper.  I had foreseen great difficulties with him, especially during the early part of any journey on which he was taken, and this consideration softened the news of his death.  The dog had been left behind in a very sick condition, and this loss was not a great surprise.

These items were the worst of the small budget of news that awaited me; for the rest, the hut arrangements had worked out in the most satisfactory manner possible and the scientific routine of observations was in full swing.  After our primitive life at Cape Armitage it was wonderful to enter the precincts of our warm, dry Cape Evans home.  The interior space seemed palatial, the light resplendent, and the comfort luxurious.  It was very good to eat in civilised fashion, to enjoy the first bath for three months, and have contact with clean, dry clothing.  Such fleeting hours of comfort (for custom soon banished their delight) are the treasured remembrance of every Polar traveller.  They throw into sharpest contrast the hardships of the past and the comforts of the present, and for the time he revels in the unaccustomed physical contentment that results.