to so organise the parties as to be prepared to meet them.  I fear to be too sanguine, yet taking everything into consideration I feel that our chances ought to be good.  The animals are in splendid form.  Day by day the ponies get fitter as their exercise increases, and the stronger, harder food toughens their muscles.  They are very different animals from those which we took south last year, and with another month of training I feel there is not one of them but will make light of the loads we shall ask them to draw.  But we cannot spare any of the ten, and so there must always be anxiety of the disablement of one or more before their work is done.

E. R. Evans, Forde, and Gran left early on Saturday for Corner Camp.  I hope they will have no difficulty in finding it.  Meares and Demetri came back from Hut Point the same afternoon—­the dogs are wonderfully fit and strong, but Meares reports no seals up in the region, and as he went to make seal pemmican, there was little object in his staying.  I leave him to come and go as he pleases, merely setting out the work he has to do in the simplest form.  I want him to take fourteen bags of forage (130 lbs. each) to Corner Camp before the end of October and to be ready to start for his supporting work soon after the pony party—­a light task for his healthy teams.  Of hopeful signs for the future none are more remarkable than the health and spirit of our people.  It would be impossible to imagine a more vigorous community, and there does not seem to be a single weak spot in the twelve good men and true who are chosen for the Southern advance.  All are now experienced sledge travellers, knit together with a bond of friendship that has never been equalled under such circumstances.  Thanks to these people, and more especially to Bowers and Petty Officer Evans, there is not a single detail of our equipment which is not arranged with the utmost care and in accordance with the tests of experience.

It is good to have arrived at a point where one can run over facts and figures again and again without detecting a flaw or foreseeing a difficulty.

I do not count on the motors—­that is a strong point in our case—­but should they work well our earlier task of reaching the Glacier will be made quite easy.  Apart from such help I am anxious that these machines should enjoy some measure of success and justify the time, money, and thought which have been given to their construction.  I am still very confident of the possibility of motor traction, whilst realising that reliance cannot be placed on it in its present untried evolutionary state—­it is satisfactory to add that my own view is the most cautious one held in our party.  Day is quite convinced he will go a long way and is prepared to accept much heavier weights than I have given him.  Lashly’s opinion is perhaps more doubtful, but on the whole hopeful.  Clissold is to make the fourth man of the motor party.  I have already mentioned his mechanical capabilities.  He has had a great deal of experience with motors, and Day is delighted to have his assistance.