When we came to our last camp, where the sledge was left, we stopped and took a few things with us.  From this point we came into the line of beacons.  Our tracks had already become very indistinct, but, thanks to his excellent sight, Bjaaland kept in them quite well.  The beacons, however, served their purpose so satisfactorily that the tracks were almost superfluous.  Although these beacons were not more than about 3 feet high, they were extremely conspicuous on the level surface.  When the sun was on them, they shone like electric lighthouses; and when the sun was on the other side, they looked so dark in the shadow that one would have taken them for black rocks.  We intended in future to travel at night; the advantages of this were many and great.  In the first place, we should have the sun behind us, which meant a good deal to our eyes.  Going against the sun on a snow surface like this tells fearfully on the eyes, even if one has good snow-goggles; but with the sun at one’s back it is only play.  Another great advantage —­ which we did not reap till later —­ was that it gave us the warmest part of the twenty-four hours in the tent, during which time we had an opportunity of drying wet clothes, and so on.  This last advantage was, however, a doubtful one, as we shall see in due course.

It was a great comfort to turn our backs to the south.  The wind, which had nearly always been in this quarter, had often been very painful to our cracked faces; now we should always have it at our backs, and it would help us on our way, besides giving our faces time to heal.  Another thing we were longing for was to come down to the Barrier again, so that we could breathe freely.  Up here we were seldom able to draw a good long breath; if we only had to say “Yes,” we had to do it in two instalments.  The asthmatic condition in which we found ourselves during our six weeks’ stay on the plateau was anything but pleasant.  We had fixed fifteen geographical miles (seventeen and three-eighths statute miles) as a suitable day’s march on the homeward journey.  We had, of course, many advantages now as compared with the southward journey, which would have enabled us to do longer marches than this; but we were afraid of overworking the dogs, and possibly using them up before we had gone very far, if we attempted too great a distance daily.  It soon proved, however, that we had underestimated our dogs’ powers; it only took us five hours to cover the appointed distance, and our rest was therefore a long one.

On December 19 we killed the first dog on the homeward trip.  This was Lasse, my own favourite dog.  He had worn himself out completely, and was no longer worth anything.  He was divided into fifteen portions, as nearly equal as possible, and given to his companions.  They had now learnt to set great store by fresh meat, and it is certain that the extra feeds, like this one, that took place from time to time on the way home, had no small share in the remarkably successful result.  They seemed to benefit by these meals of fresh meat for several days afterwards, and worked much more easily.