“Sunday, January 8.

“This morning a regrettable accident took place.  The third and newest motor sledge was hoisted out and, while being hauled clear on to the firm ice, it broke through and sank in deep water.  Campbell and Day came in with the news, which Captain Scott took awfully well.

   “It was nobody’s fault, as Simpson and Campbell both tested the floe
   first and found it quite thick and apparently good.  However, there it
   is, in about 100 fathoms of water.

   “We stopped sledging for the day and those on board shifted the ship
   by warping, but could not get her into a satisfactory billet, so
   raised steam.

“We spent the day working on the hut and putting chairs and benches together.  Captain Scott put the sledge meters together and I helped him.  These are similar to the distance meters on motor-cars.  They register in nautical miles (6084 feet) and yards, to 25 yards or less by interpolation.

   “Took a True Bearing and found the approximate variation for Simpson
   (149 degrees E.).”

On the following day those on board the ship shifted her to a new position alongside the fast ice, just under a mile from our beach.  The transportation of stores continued and we got ashore a great number of bales of compressed fodder, also some Crown Preserve Patent Fuel.  As there was nothing much to do on the beach my party lent a hand with the landing of fodder, and I led the ponies Miki, Jehu, and Blossom; the latter, having suffered greatly on the outward voyage, was in poor condition.  Still, most of the ponies were doing well, and at night were picketed on a snowdrift behind the hut.  They occasionally got adrift, but I usually heard them and got up to make them fast, my small sleeping-tent being right alongside their tethering space.

Nelson continued working with me unless the requirements of his biological work called him away.  In less than a week we had the whole of our stores and equipment landed, and from the beginning many of us took up our quarters at Cape Evans itself.  We pitched several small tents on the beach; and it was an agreeable change to roll up and sleep in a fur bag after the damp, cold berths we had occupied in the ship.  Teddy Nelson became my particular friend in the shore party and shared a sledging tent with me.  The rest of the shore staff paired off and slept in the small tents, while Captain Scott had one to himself.  We called it the “Holy of Holies,” and from the privacy of this tiny dwelling Scott issued his directions, supervised, planned, and improved whenever improvement could be made in anything.  He had a marvellous brain and a marvellous way of getting the best possible work out of his subordinates, still he never spared himself.  One did with extraordinary little sleep, and in the sunny days it became necessary to leave tent doors wide open, otherwise the close-woven wind-proof tent cloth kept all the fresh air out and one woke with a terrific head.