But the ponies began to go better; and it was about this time that Jehu was styled the Barrier Wonder, and Chinaman the Thunderbolt.  “Our four ponies have suffered most,” writes Bowers.  “I don’t agree with Titus that it is best to march them right through without a lunch camp.  They were undoubtedly pretty tired, and worst of all did not go their feeds properly.  It was a fine warm morning for them (Nov. 13); +15 deg., our warmest temperature hitherto.  In the afternoon it came on to snow in large flakes like one would get at home.  I have never seen such snow down here before; it makes the surface very bad for the sledges.  The ponies’ manes and rugs were covered in little knots of ice.”

The next march (November 13-14) was rather better, though the going was very deep and heavy, and all the ponies were showing signs of wear and tear.  This was followed by a delightfully warm day, and all the animals were standing drowsily in the sunshine.  We could see the land far away behind us, the first sight of land we had had for many days.  On November 15 we reached One Ton Depot, having travelled a hundred and thirty miles from Hut Point.

The two sledges left standing were still upright, and the tattered remains of a flag flapped over the main cairn.  In a salt tin lashed to the bamboo flag-pole was a note from Lieutenant Evans to say that he had gone on with the motor party five days before, and would continue man-hauling to 80 deg. 30’ S. and await us there.  “He has done something over 30 miles in 21/2 days—­exceedingly good going."[199] We dug out the cairn, which we found just as we had left it except that there was a big tongue of drift, level with the top of the cairn to leeward, and running about 150 yards to N.E., showing that the prevailing wind here is S.W.  Nine months before we had sprinkled some oats on the surface of the snow hoping to get a measurement of the accretion of snow during the winter.  Unfortunately we were unable to find the oats again, but other evidence went to show that the snow deposit was very small.  A minimum thermometer which was lashed with great care to a framework registered -73 deg..  After the temperatures already experienced by us on the Barrier during the winter and spring this was surprisingly high, especially as our minimum temperatures were taken under the sledge, which means that the thermometer is shaded from radiation, while this thermometer at One Ton was left open to the sky.  On the Winter Journey we found that a shaded thermometer registered -69 deg. when an unshaded one registered -75 deg., a difference of 6 deg..  All the provisions left here were found to be in excellent condition.

We then had a prolonged council of war.  This meant that Scott called Bowers, and perhaps Oates, into our tent after supper was finished in the morning.  Somehow these conferences were always rather serio-comic.  On this occasion, as was usually the case, the question was ponies.  It was decided to wait here one day and rest them, as there was ample food.  The main discussion centred round the amount of forage to be taken on from here, while the state of the ponies, the amount they could pull and the distance they could go had to be taken into consideration.