January 25 was fixed as the day upon which twelve of us, with eight ponies and the two dog-teams, were to start south to lay a depot upon the Barrier for the Polar Journey.  Scott was of opinion that the bays between us and the Hut Point Peninsula would freeze over in March, probably early in March, and that we should most of us get back to Cape Evans then.  At the same time the ponies could not come down over the cliffs of this tongue of land, and preparations had to be made for a lengthy stay at Hut Point for them and their keepers.  For this purpose Scott meant to use the old Discovery hut at Hut Point.[109]

On January 15 he took Meares and one dog-team, and started for Hut Point, which was fifteen statute miles to the south of us.  They crossed Glacier Tongue, finding upon it a depot of compressed fodder and maize which had been left by Shackleton.  The open water to the west nearly reached the Tongue.

On arrival at the hut Scott was shocked to find it full of snow and ice.  This was serious, and, as we found afterwards the drifted snow had thawed down into ice:  the whole of the inside of this hut was a big ice block.  In the middle of this ice was a pile of cases left by the Discovery as a depot.  They were, we knew, full of biscuit.

“There was something too depressing in finding the old hut in such a desolate condition.  I had had so much interest in seeing all the old landmarks and the huts apparently intact.  To camp outside and feel that all the old comforts and cheer had departed was dreadfully heartrending."[110]

That night “we slept badly till the morning and, therefore, late.  After breakfast we went up the hills; there was a keen S.E. breeze, but the sun shone and my spirits revived.  There was very much less snow everywhere than I had ever seen.  The ski run was completely cut through in two places, the Gap and Observation Hill almost bare, a great bare slope on the side of Arrival Heights, and on top of Crater Heights an immense bare table-land.  How delighted we should have been to see it like this in the old days!  The pond was thawed and the confervae green in fresh water.  The hole which we had dug in the mound in the pond was still there, as Meares discovered by falling into it up to his waist, and getting very wet.

“On the south side we could see the pressure ridges beyond Pram Point as of old—­Horseshoe Bay calm and unpressed—­the sea-ice pressed on Pram Point and along the Gap ice front, and a new ridge running around C. Armitage about 2 miles off.  We saw Ferrar’s old thermometer tubes standing out of the snow slope as though they’d been placed yesterday.  Vince’s cross might have been placed yesterday—­the paint was so fresh and the inscription so legible."[111]

We had two officers who had been with Shackleton in his 1908 Expedition—­Priestley, who was in our Northern Party, and Day, who was in charge of our motors.  Priestley with two others sledged over to Cape Royds and has left an account of the old hut there: