And so to-night, with the sun still shining, we look on a very different prospect from that of 48 or even 24 hours ago.

I have just come back from the shore.

The site for the hut is levelled and the erecting party is living on shore in our large green tent with a supply of food for eight days.  Nearly all the timber, &c., of the hut is on shore, the remainder half-way there.  The ponies are picketed in a line on a convenient snow slope so that they cannot eat sand.  Oates and Anton are sleeping ashore to watch over them.  The dogs are tied to a long length of chain stretched on the sand; they are coiled up after a long day, looking fitter already.  Meares and Demetri are sleeping in the green tent to look after them.  A supply of food for ponies and dogs as well as for the men has been landed.  Two motor sledges in good working order are safely on the beach.

A fine record for our first day’s work.  All hands start again at 6 A.M. to-morrow.

It’s splendid to see at last the effect of all the months of preparation and organisation.  There is much snoring about me as I write (2 P.M.) from men tired after a hard day’s work and preparing for such another to-morrow.  I also must sleep, for I have had none for 48 hours—­but it should be to dream happily.

Thursday, January 5.—­All hands were up at 5 this morning and at work at 6.  Words cannot express the splendid way in which everyone works and gradually the work gets organised.  I was a little late on the scene this morning, and thereby witnessed a most extraordinary scene.  Some 6 or 7 killer whales, old and young, were skirting the fast floe edge ahead of the ship; they seemed excited and dived rapidly, almost touching the floe.  As we watched, they suddenly appeared astern, raising their snouts out of water.  I had heard weird stories of these beasts, but had never associated serious danger with them.  Close to the water’s edge lay the wire stern rope of the ship, and our two Esquimaux dogs were tethered to this.  I did not think of connecting the movements of the whales with this fact, and seeing them so close I shouted to Ponting, who was standing abreast of the ship.  He seized his camera and ran towards the floe edge to get a close picture of the beasts, which had momentarily disappeared.  The next moment the whole floe under him and the dogs heaved up and split into fragments.  One could hear the ‘booming’ noise as the whales rose under the ice and struck it with their backs.  Whale after whale rose under the ice, setting it rocking fiercely; luckily Ponting kept his feet and was able to fly to security.  By an extraordinary chance also, the splits had been made around and between the dogs, so that neither of them fell into the water.  Then it was clear that the whales shared our astonishment, for one after another their huge hideous heads shot vertically into the air through the cracks which they had made.  As they reared them to a height of 6 or 8 feet it was possible to see their tawny head markings, their small glistening eyes, and their terrible array of teeth—­by far the largest and most terrifying in the world.  There cannot be a doubt that they looked up to see what had happened to Ponting and the dogs.