At eleven o’clock the next morning —­ Sunday, November 12 —­ we reached the depot.  Captain Amundsen had promised to leave a brief report when the southern party left here, and the first thing we did on arrival was, of course, to search for the document in the place agreed upon.  There were not many words on the little slip of paper, but they gave us the welcome intelligence:  “All well so far.”

We had expected that the southern party’s dogs would have finished the greater part, if not the whole, of the seal meat that was laid down here in April; but fortunately this was not the case.  There was a great quantity left, so that we could give our own dogs a hearty feed with easy consciences.  They had it, too, and it was no trifling amount that they got through.  The four days’ trot from Framheim had been enough to produce an unusual appetite.  There was a puppy in Johansen’s team that was exposed for the first time in his life to the fatigues of a sledge journey.  This was a plucky little chap that went by the name of Lillegut.  The sudden change from short commons to abundance was too much for his small stomach, and the poor puppy lay shrieking in the snow most of the afternoon.

We also looked after ourselves that day, and had a good meal of fresh seal meat; after that we supplied ourselves from the large stores that lay here with the necessary provisions for a sledge journey of five weeks:  three cases of dogs’ pemmican, one case of men’s pemmican, containing ninety rations, 20 pounds of dried milk, 55 pounds of oatmeal biscuits, and three tins of malted milk, besides instruments, Alpine rope, and clothing.  The necessary quantity of chocolate had been brought with us from Framheim, as there was none of this to spare out in the field.  Our stock of paraffin was 6 1/2 gallons, divided between two tanks, one on each sledge.  Our cooking outfit was exactly the same as that used by the southern party.

The instruments we carried were a theodolite, a hypsometer, two aneroids, one of which was no larger than an ordinary watch, two thermometers, one chronometer watch, one ordinary watch, and one photographic camera (Kodak 3 x 3 inches), adapted for using either plates or films.  We had three spools of film, and one dozen plates.

Our medical outfit was exceedingly simple.  It consisted of nothing but a box of laxative pills, three small rolls of gauze bandage, and a small pair of scissors, which also did duty for beard-cutting.  Both pills and gauze were untouched when we returned; it may therefore be safely said that our state of health during the journey was excellent.

While the drivers were packing and lashing their loads, which now weighed nearly 600 pounds, I wrote a report to the Chief, and took an azimuth observation to determine the direction of our course.  According to our instructions we should really have taken a north-easterly course from here; but as our dogs seemed to be capable of more and better work than we had expected, and as there was believed to be a possibility that bare land was to be found due east of the spot where we were, it was decided to make an attempt in that direction.