November 20.  Early morning. To-day we have seemed to be walking in circles through space.  Wright, by dint of having a man behind to give him a fixed point to steer upon, has steered us quite straight, and we have picked up every cairn.  The pony party camped for lunch by two cairns, but they never knew the two cairns were there until a piece of paper blew away and had to be fetched:  and it was caught against one of the cairns.  They left a flag there to guide us, and though we saw and brought along the flag, we never saw the cairns.  The temperature is -22.5 deg., and it is now blowing a full blizzard.  All this snow has hitherto been lying on the ground and making a very soft surface, for though the wind has always been blowing it has never been very strong.  This snow and wind, which have now persisted for nine out of the last ten days, make most dispiriting marches; for there is nothing to see, and finding tracks or steering is a constant strain.  We are certainly lucky to have been able to march as we have.

Note on Mules.—­The most ardent admirer of mules could not say that they were a success.  The question is whether they might be made so.  There was really only one thing against them but that is a very important one—­they would not eat on the Barrier.  From the time they went away to the day they returned (those that did return, poor things) they starved themselves, and yet they pulled biggish loads for 30 days.

If they would have eaten they would have been a huge success.  They travelled faster than the ponies and, with one exception, kept together better than the ponies.  If both were eating their ration it is questionable whether a good mule or a good pony is to be preferred.  Our mules were of the best, and they were beautifully trained and equipped by the Indian Government:  yet on November 13, a fortnight from the start, Wright records, “mules are a poor substitute for ponies.  Not many will see Hut Point again, I think.  Doubt if any would have got much farther than this if surfaces had been as bad this year as last."[292]

Though they would not eat oats, compressed fodder and oil-cake, they were quite willing to eat all kinds of other things.  If we could have arrived at the mule equivalent to a vegetarian diet they might have pulled to the Beardmore without stopping.  The nearest to this diet at which we could arrive was saennegrass, tea-leaves, tobacco ash and rope—­all of which were eaten with gusto.  But supplies were very limited.  They ate dog-biscuit as long as they thought we were not looking—­but as soon as they realized they were meant to eat it they went on hunger-strike again.  But during halts at cairns Rani and Pyaree would stand solemnly chewing the same piece of rope from different ends.  Abdullah always led the line, and followed Wright’s ski tracks faithfully, so that if another man was ahead and Wright turned aside Abdullah always turned too.  It was quite a manoeuvre for Wright to read the sledge-meter at the back of the sledge.  As for Begum:  “Got Begum out of a soft patch by rolling her over."[293]