“A few of the things we learnt about the Norwegians are as follows: 

“The engines of the Fram occupy only half the size of our wardroom, the petrol tanks have not needed replenishment since they left Norway, and their propeller can be lifted by three men.  They kept fresh potatoes from Norway to the Barrier. (Some of them must surely be renegade Irishmen.) They have each a separate cabin ’tween-decks in the Fram, and are very comfortable.  They are using for transporting their stores to the hut, eight teams of five dogs each, working every alternate day.

“They intend to use for the Polar Journey teams of ten dogs, each team working one day out of two.  Their dogs stop at a whistle, and if they make a break they can be stopped by overturning the sledge, empty or full as the case may be.  They are nine in the shore party and ten in the ship.  Their ship is going back to Buenos Ayres with Nilsen in charge and during the winter is to encircle the world, sounding all the way.

“They are not starting on the dash South this year and do not yet know whether they will lay depots this year.  They have 116 dogs and ten of these are bitches, so that they can rear pups, and have done so very successfully on the way out.  The Fram acts like a cork in the sea; she rolls tremendously but does not ship water, and during the voyage they have had the dogs running loose about the decks.  There is a lot more miscellaneous information, but I may remember it more coherently a little later when the main impressions of the rencontre are a little more faint."[119]

It will be seen that Priestley missed three points.  First, he was left with a conventional but very erroneous impression of Amundsen as a blunt Norwegian sailor, not in the least an intellectual.  Second, he thought Amundsen had camped on the ice and not on terra firma.  Third, he thought Amundsen was going to the Pole by the old route over the Beardmore.  The truth was that Amundsen was an explorer of the markedly intellectual type, rather Jewish than Scandinavian, who had proved his sagacity by discovering solid footing for the winter by pure judgment.  For the moment, let it be confessed, we all underrated Amundsen, and could not shake off the feeling that he had stolen a march on us.

Back to McMurdo Sound, and the news left at Hut Point.  Then the two ponies which had been allotted to Campbell were swum ashore at Cape Evans, since he thought that now they would be of more use to Scott than to himself.  Subsequent events proved the extreme usefulness of this unselfish act.  The Terra Nova would steam north and try and land Campbell’s party on the extreme northern shores of Queen Victoria Land.  At the same time there was so little coal left that it might be necessary to go straight back to New Zealand.  Campbell regretted not being able to see Scott, supposing that the altered circumstances caused Scott to wish to rearrange his parties, and also because Amundsen had asked Campbell to land his party at the Bay of Whales, giving him the area to the east to explore, and Campbell did not wish to accept before getting Scott’s permission.