We had a keen north wind to-night and a haze, but wind is dropping and sun shining brightly again.  To-day seemed to be the hottest we have yet had; after walking across I was perspiring freely, and later as I sat in the sun after lunch one could almost imagine a warm summer day in England.

This is my first night ashore.  I’m writing in one of my new domed tents which makes a very comfortable apartment.

Monday, January 9.—­I didn’t poke my nose out of my tent till 6.45, and the first object I saw was the ship, which had not previously been in sight from our camp.  She was now working her way along the ice edge with some difficulty.  I heard afterwards that she had started at 6.15 and she reached the point I marked yesterday at 8.15.  After breakfast I went on board and was delighted to find a good solid road right up to the ship.  A flag was hoisted immediately for the ponies to come out, and we commenced a good day’s work.  All day the sledges have been coming to and fro, but most of the pulling work has been done by the ponies:  the track is so good that these little animals haul anything from 12 to 18 cwt.  Both dogs and men parties have been a useful addition to the haulage—­no party or no single man comes over without a load averaging 300 lbs. per man.  The dogs, working five to a team, haul 5 to 6 cwt. and of course they travel much faster than either ponies or men.

In this way we transported a large quantity of miscellaneous stores; first about 3 tons of coal for present use, then 2 1/2 tons of carbide, all the many stores, chimney and ventilators for the hut, all the biologists’ gear—­a big pile, the remainder of the physicists’ gear and medical stores, and many old cases; in fact a general clear up of everything except the two heavy items of forage and fuel.  Later in the day we made a start on the first of these, and got 7 tons ashore before ceasing work.  We close with a good day to our credit, marred by an unfortunate incident—­one of the dogs, a good puller, was seen to cough after a journey; he was evidently trying to bring something up—­two minutes later he was dead.  Nobody seems to know the reason, but a post-mortem is being held by Atkinson and I suppose the cause of death will be found.  We can’t afford to lose animals of any sort.

All the ponies except three have now brought loads from the ship.  Oates thinks these three are too nervous to work over this slippery surface.  However, he tried one of the hardest cases to-night, a very fine pony, and got him in successfully with a big load.

To-morrow we ought to be running some twelve or thirteen of these animals.

Griffith Taylor’s bolted on three occasions, the first two times more or less due to his own fault, but the third owing to the stupidity of one of the sailors.  Nevertheless a third occasion couldn’t be overlooked by his messmates, who made much merriment of the event.  It was still funnier when he brought his final load (an exceptionally heavy one) with a set face and ardent pace, vouchsafing not a word to anyone he passed.