On arriving at the Tongue, Pennell selected a nice, natural wharf to put his ship alongside, and, this done, I got a picketing line out on the ice for the horses and then got the sledges on to the glacier.  It is as well here to describe Glacier Tongue briefly, since frequent reference will be made to that icy promontory in this narrative.

Glacier Tongue lies roughly six miles to the S.S.E. of Cape Evans and is a remarkable spit of ice jutting out, when last surveyed, for four miles into McMurdo Sound.  Soundings showed that it was afloat for a considerable part of its length, and as Scott found subsequently, a great portion of it broke adrift in the autumn or winter of 1911 and was carried by the winds and currents of the Sound to a position forty miles W.N.W. of Cape Evans, where it grounded, a huge flat iceberg two miles in length.  Glacier Tongue was an old friend of mine, for it was here in the 1902-4 Relief Expedition that the crew of the little “Morning” dumped twenty tons of coal for the “Discovery” to pick up on her way northward, when the time came for her to free herself from the besetting ice which held her prisoner off Hut Point.

The ponies were marched to their tethering place without further accident than one falling through into the sea, but he was rescued none the worse.  Oates showed himself to advantage in managing the ponies:  he was very fond of telling us that a horse and a man would go anywhere, and I believe if we sailor-men had had the bad taste to challenge him he would have hoisted one of those Chinese ma[1] up to the crow’s-nest! [1:  Chinese for horse.]

We all had tea on board and then, after checking the sledge loads and ascertaining that nothing had been forgotten, the depot party started out with full loads and marched away from Glacier Tongue for seven miles, when our first camp was made on the sea ice.  To commence with I went with Meares and No. 1 dog-sledge; the dogs were so eager and excited that they started by bolting at a breakneck speed and, in spite of all that we could do, took us over the glacier edge on to the sea ice.  The sledge capsized and both Meares and I were thrown down somewhat forcibly.  We caught the sledge, however, and got the dogs in hand after their initial energy had been expended.  Scott and Wilson managed their dog sledge better as Meares gave them a quieter team.

It was about nine o’clock when we camped, Meares, Wilson, Scott and I sharing a tent.  Uncle Bill was cook, and I must say the first sledging supper was delightful.

We went back to Glacier Tongue the next day to relay the fodder and dog biscuit which was to be depoted.  We had brought the provisions for depot along the eve before.  I went in with Meares and Nelson, who had come out on ski to “speed the parting guest.”  We had a rare treat all riding in on the dog sledge at a great pace.  Had lunch on board and then Captain Scott gave us an hour or two to ourselves, for it was the day of farewell letters,