On October 25 we left 80deg.  S. with a light north-westerly breeze, clear and mild.  I was now to take up my position in advance of the sledges, and placed myself a few paces in front of Hanssen’s, with my ski pointing in the right direction.  A last look behind me:  “All ready?” and away I went.  I thought —­ no; I didn’t have time to think.  Before I knew anything about it, I was sent flying by the dogs.  In the confusion that ensued they stopped, luckily, so that I escaped without damage, as far as that went.  To tell the truth, I was angry, but as I had sense enough to see that the situation, already sufficiently comic, would be doubly ridiculous if I allowed my annoyance to show itself, I wisely kept quiet.  And, after all, whose fault was it?  I was really the only one to blame; why in the world had I not got away faster?  I now changed my plan entirely —­ there is nothing to be ashamed of in that, I hope —­ and fell in with the awkward squad; there I was more successful.  “All ready?  Go!” And go they did.  First Hanssen went off like a meteor; close behind him came Wisting, and then Bjaaland and Hassel.  They all had ski on, and were driving with a line.  I had made up my mind to follow in the rear, as I thought the dogs would not keep this up for long, but I soon had enough of it.  We did the first six and a quarter miles in an hour.  I thought that would do for me, so I went up to Wisting, made a rope fast to his sledge, and there I stood till we reached 85deg. 5’ S. —­ three hundred and forty miles.  Yes; that was a pleasant surprise.  We had never dreamed of anything of the sort —­ driving on ski to the Pole!  Thanks to Hanssen’s brilliant talents as a dog-driver, we could easily do this.  He had his dogs well in hand, and they knew their master.  They knew that the moment they failed to do their duty they would be pulled up, and a hiding all round would follow.  Of course, as always happens, Nature occasionally got the better of discipline; but the “confirmation” that resulted checked any repetition of such conduct for a long while.  The day’s march was soon completed in this way, and we camped early.

On the following day we were already in sight of the large pressure-ridges on the east, which we had seen for the first time on the second depot journey between 81deg. and 82deg.  S., and this showed that the atmosphere must be very clear.  We could not see any greater number than the first time, however.  From our experience of beacons built of snow, we could see that if we built such beacons now, on our way south, they would be splendid marks for our return journey; we therefore decided to adopt this system of landmarks to the greatest possible extent.  We built in all 150 beacons, 6 feet high, and used in their construction 9,000 blocks, cut out of the snow with specially large snow-knives.  In each of them was deposited a paper, giving the number and position of the beacon, and indicating the distance and the direction to be taken to reach the next beacon