We then had a couple of days of bitter cold with fog, so that we did not see much of our surroundings.  We followed the fish and the marks most of the way.  We had already begun to find the fish useful as extra food; the dogs took it greedily.  The forerunner had to take up each fish and throw it on one side; then one of the drivers went out, took it up, and put it on his sledge.  If the dogs had come upon the fish standing in the snow we should soon have had fierce fights.  Even now, before we reached the depot in 80deg.  S., the dogs began to show signs of exhaustion, probably as a result of the cold weather (-16.6deg.  F.) and the hard work.  They were stiff in the legs in the morning and difficult to set going.

On February 27, at 10.30 a.m., we reached the depot in 80deg.  S. The depot was standing as we had left it, and no snow-drifts had formed about it, from which we concluded that the weather conditions had been quiet.  The snow, which we had found very loose when we were there before, was now hardened by the cold.  We were lucky with the sun, and got the position of the depot accurately determined.

On our way across these endless plains, where no landmarks of any kind are to be found, we had repeatedly thought of a means of marking our depots so that we might be perfectly sure of finding them again.  Our fight for the Pole was entirely dependent on this autumn work, in laying down large supplies of provisions as far to the south as possible in such a way that we could be certain of finding them again.  If we missed them, the battle would probably be lost.  As I have said, we had discussed the question thoroughly, and come to the conclusion that we should have to try to mark our depots at right angles to the route, in an east and west direction, instead of in a line with the route, north and south.  These marks along the line of the route may easily be missed in fog, if they are not close enough together; and if one thus gets out of the line, there is a danger of not picking it up again.  According to this new arrangement we therefore marked this depot in 80deg.  S. with high bamboo poles carrying black flags.  We used twenty of these —­ ten on each side of the depot.  Between each two flags there was a distance of 984 yards (900 metres), so that the distance marked on each side of the depot was five and a half miles (nine kilometres).  Each bamboo was marked with a number, so that we should always be able to tell from this number on which side the depot lay, and how far off.  This method was entirely new and untried, but proved afterwards to work with absolute certainty.  Our compasses and sledge-meters had, of course, been carefully adjusted at the station, and we knew that we could rely on them.