They looked tired, the ponies’ leaders, and we looked as though we had come out of a bull fight in a barn, with our hair grown long and full of the loose reindeer hairs from the sleeping-bags, all mixed with our beards and jerseys.  After hallos and handshakes, smiles and grunts, we asked for news, and were gratified to find that all was well with men and beasts alike.  What delay there was was due to blizzards and to the marches being purposely kept down to give the weaker animals a chance:  Day facetiously remarked, “We haven’t seen anything of Amundsen”—­seeing that the valiant Norseman was in Latitude 85 degrees 30 minutes S. nearly eleven thousand feet up above the altitude of the Barrier at this date one is not surprised.

For all our peace of mind it was well we did not know it.

We yarned away about ourselves and our experiences, then got our cooker under way to have breakfast and to await the arrival of Captain Scott and the seven lustier ponies.  They arrived before our breakfast was ready; more greetings and much joy in the motor party.  Scott expressed his satisfaction at our share in the advance, hurriedly gave us further instructions, and then proceeded, leaving us to join at their camp 3 1/2 miles farther south:  Accordingly we deposited a unit of provisions at the cairn, put up a bamboo with a large black flag on it, left two of the boxes of biscuit from One Ton Depot and three tins of paraffin, and then set out.

We came up to the Main Camp at 10 o’clock in the forenoon, pitched our tent, had a conference with Captain Scott, cadged some biscuits, and then cooked lunch and got into our sleeping-bags to await the hour of 6 p.m. before commencing our southward march as pioneers and trail breakers.

Scott had with him the following, leading ponies:  Wilson, Oates, Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Edgar Evans, and Crean, besides the aforesaid three with the “crocks.”

Meares and Dimitri drove dog teams and every one was in good health and sparkling spirits.  Our leader ordered the motor party, or man-hauling party, as we were now termed, to go forward and advance 15 miles daily, and to erect cairns at certain prearranged distances, surveying, navigating, and selecting the camping site.  The ponies were to march by night and rest when the sun was high and the air warmer.  Meares’s dogs were to bring up the rear—­and start some hours after the ponies since their speed was so much greater.

So we started away at 8.15 p.m., marched 7 miles and a bittock to lunch, putting up a “top-hat” cairn at 4 miles, two cairns at the lunch camp, one cairn three miles beyond, and so on according to plan.

Atkinson’s tent gave us some biscuit, cheese, and seal liver, so that day we lived high.  After lunch we continued until the prescribed distance had been fully covered.

We noticed that there were ice crystals like spikes, with no glide about them, and the surface continued thus until 3 a.m. when there was a sudden change for the better.  Quite substantial pony walls were built by the horsemen when they camped—­all these marks ensuring a homeward marching route like a buoyed channel.