There was a breathless minute when Hackenschmidt, with a sledge attached to him, went galloping over the hills and boulders.  Below him, all unconscious of his impending fate, was Ponting, adjusting a large camera with his usual accuracy.  Both survived.  There were runaways innumerable, and all kinds of falls.  But these ponies could tumble about unharmed in a way which would cause an English horse to lie up for a week.  “There is no doubt that the bumping of the sledges close at the heels of the animals is the root of the evil."[99]

There were two adventures during this first week of landing stores which might well have had a more disastrous conclusion.  The first of these was the adventure of Ponting and the Killer whales.

“I was a little late on the scene this morning, and thereby witnessed a most extraordinary scene.  Some six or seven killer whales, old and young, were skirting the fast floe edge ahead of the ship; they seemed excited and dived rapidly, almost touching the floe.  As we watched, they suddenly appeared astern, raising their snouts out of water.  I had heard weird stories of these beasts, but had never associated serious danger with them.  Close to the water’s edge lay the wire stern rope of the ship, and our two Esquimaux dogs were tethered to this.  I did not think of connecting the movement of the whales with this fact, and seeing them so close I shouted to Ponting, who was standing abreast of the ship.  He seized his camera and ran towards the floe edge to get a close picture of the beasts, which had momentarily disappeared.  The next moment the whole floe under him and the dogs heaved up and split into fragments.  One could hear the booming noise as the whales rose under the ice and struck it with their backs.  Whale after whale rose under the ice, setting it rocking fiercely; luckily Ponting kept his feet and was able to fly to security.  By an extraordinary chance also, the splits had been made around and between the dogs, so that neither of them fell into the water.  Then it was clear that the whales shared our astonishment, for one after another their huge hideous heads shot vertically into the air through the cracks which they had made.  As they reared them to a height of six or eight feet it was possible to see their tawny head markings, their small glistening eyes, and their terrible array of teeth—­by far the largest and most terrifying in the world.  There cannot be a doubt that they looked up to see what had happened to Ponting and the dogs.

“The latter were horribly frightened and strained to their chains, whining; the head of one killer must certainly have been within five feet of one of the dogs.

“After this, whether they thought the game insignificant, or whether they missed Ponting is uncertain, but the terrifying creatures passed on to other hunting grounds, and we were able to rescue the dogs, and what was even more important, our petrol—­five or six tons of which was waiting on a piece of ice which was not split away from the main mass.