In the next three marches we covered our daily 13 miles, for the most part without very great difficulty.  But poor Jehu was in a bad way, stopping every few hundred yards.  It was a funereal business for the leaders of these crock ponies; and at this stage of the journey Atkinson, Wright and Keohane had many more difficulties than most of us, and the success of their ponies was largely due to their patience and care.  Incidentally big icicles formed upon the ponies’ noses during the march and Chinaman used Wright’s windproof blouse as a handkerchief.  During the last of these marches, that is on the morning of November 21, we saw a massive cairn ahead, and found there the motor party, consisting of Lieutenant Evans, Day, Lashly and Hooper.  The cairn was in 80 deg. 32’, and under the name Mount Hooper formed our Upper Barrier Depot.  We left there three S (summit) rations, two cases of emergency biscuits and two cases of oil, which constituted three weekly food units for the three parties which were to advance from the bottom of the Beardmore Glacier.  This food was to take them back from 80 deg. 32’ to One Ton Camp.  We all camped for the night 3 miles farther on:  sixteen men, five tents, ten ponies, twenty-three dogs and thirteen sledges.

The man-hauling party had been waiting for six days; and, having expected us before, were getting anxious about us.  They declared that they were very hungry, and Day, who was always long and thin, looked quite gaunt.  Some spare biscuits which we gave them from our tent were carried off with gratitude.  The rest of us who were driving dogs or leading ponies still found our Barrier ration satisfying.

We had now been out three weeks and had travelled 192 miles, and formed a very good idea as to what the ponies could do.  The crocks had done wonderfully:—­“We hope Jehu will last three days; he will then be finished in any case and fed to the dogs.  It is amusing to see Meares looking eagerly for the chance of a feed for his animals; he has been expecting it daily.  On the other hand, Atkinson and Oates are eager to get the poor animal beyond the point at which Shackleton killed his first beast.  Reports on Chinaman are very favourable, and it really looks as though the ponies are going to do what is hoped of them."[202] From first to last Nobby, who was rescued from the floe, was the strongest pony we had, and was now drawing a heavier load than any other pony by 50 lbs.  He was a well-shaped, contented kind of animal, misnamed a pony.  Indeed several of our beasts were too large to fit this description.  Christopher, of course, was wearing himself out quicker than most, but all of them had lost a lot of weight in spite of the fact that they had all the oats and oil-cake they could eat.  Bowers writes of his pony: