“Well, we have done our best and bought our experience at a heavy cost.  Now every effort must be bent on saving the remaining animals."[123]

A letter from Bowers home, which certainly does not overstate the adventures of himself and the two men sent forward to join him, is probably the best description of the incidents which followed.  It will be remembered that Crean and I with three ponies were sent from Safety Camp to join him:  he was already leading one pony.  Night was beginning to fall, and the light was bad, but from the edge of the Barrier the two dog-teams could still be seen as black dots in the distance towards Cape Armitage.

“On the night of February 28 I led off with my pony and was surprised at the delay in the others leaving—­knowing nothing of Weary’s collapse.  Over the edge of the Barrier I went, and at the bottom of the snow incline awaited the others.  To my surprise Cherry and Crean appeared with Punch, Nobby and Guts in a string, and then I heard the reason for Oates and Scott not having come on.  My orders were to push on to Hut Point over the sea-ice without delay, and to follow the dogs; previously I had been told to camp on the sea-ice only in case of the beasts being unable to go on.  We had four pretty heavy sledges, as we were taking six weeks’ man food and oil to the hut, as well as a lot of gear from the depot, and pony food, etc.  Unfortunately the dogs misunderstood their orders and, instead of piloting us, dashed off on their own.  We saw them like specks in the distance in the direction of the old seal crack.  Having crossed this they wheeled to the right in the direction of Cape Armitage and disappeared into a black indefinite mist, which seemed to pervade everything in that direction.  We heard afterwards that in a mile or two they came to some alarming signs and, turning, made for the Gap where they got up on to the land about midnight.

“I plugged on in their tracks, till we came to the seal crack which was an old pressure-ridge running many miles S.W. from Pram Point.  We considered the ice behind this crack—­over which we had just come—­fast ice; it was older ice than that beyond, as it had undoubtedly frozen over first.  Having crossed the crack we streaked on for Cape Armitage.  The animals were going badly, owing to the effects of the blizzard, and frequent stoppages were necessary.  On coming to some shaky ice we headed farther west as there were always some bad places off the cape, and I thought it better to make a good circuit.  Crean, who had been over the ice recently, told me it was all right farther round.  However, about a mile farther on I began to have misgivings; the cracks became too frequent to be pleasant, and although the ice was from five to ten feet thick, one does not like to see water squelching between them, as we did later.  It spells motion, and motion on sea-ice means breakage.  I shoved on in the hope of getting on better ice round the cape, but at last came a moving crack, and that