The plan of the shore party was, as soon as the hut was built and provisions landed, to carry supplies into the field, and lay down depots as far to the south as possible.  I hoped to get such a quantity of provisions brought down to lat. 80deg.  S., that we should be able to regard this latitude as the real starting-place of the actual sledge journey to the Pole.  We shall see later that this hope was more than fulfilled, and a labour many times greater than this was performed.  By the time this depot work was accomplished winter would be before us, and with the knowledge we had of the conditions in the Antarctic regions, every precaution would have to be taken to meet the coldest and probably the most stormy weather that any Polar expedition had hitherto encountered.  My object was, when winter had once set in, and everything in the station was in good working order, to concentrate all our forces upon the one object —­ that of reaching the Pole.

I intended to try to get people with me who were specially fitted for outdoor work in the cold.  Even more necessary was it to find men who were experienced dog-drivers; I saw what a decisive bearing this would have on the result.  There are advantages and disadvantages in having experienced people with one on an expedition like this.  The advantages are obvious.  If a variety of experiences are brought together and used with common sense, of course a great deal can be achieved.  The experience of one man will often come in opportunely where that of another falls short.  The experiences of several will supplement each other, and form something like a perfect whole; this is what I hoped to obtain.  But there is no rose without a thorn; if it has its advantages, it also has its drawbacks.  The drawback to which one is liable in this case is that someone or other may think he possesses so much experience that every opinion but his own is worthless.  It is, of course, regrettable when experience takes this turn, but with patience and common sense it can be broken of it.  In any case, the advantages are so great and predominant that I had determined to have experienced men to the greatest extent possible.  It was my plan to devote the entire winter to working at our outfit, and to get it as near to perfection as possible.  Another thing to which we should have to give some time was the killing of a sufficient number of seals to provide fresh meat both for ourselves and our dogs for the whole time.  Scurvy, the worst enemy of Polar expeditions, must be kept off at all costs, and to achieve this it was my intention to use fresh meat every day.  It proved easy to carry out this rule, since everyone, without exception, preferred seal meat to tinned foods.  And when spring came I hoped that my companions and I would be ready, fit and well, with an outfit complete in every way.

The plan was to leave the station as early in the spring as possible.  If we had set out to capture this record, we must at any cost get there first.  Everything must be staked upon this.  From the very moment when I had formed the plan, I had made up my mind that our course from the Bay of Whales must be set due south, and follow the same meridian, if possible, right up to the Pole.  The effect of this would be that we should traverse an entirely new region, and gain other results besides beating the record.