was abominably soft,” wrote Mackintosh.  “We harnessed ourselves on to the sledge and with the dogs made a start, but we had a struggle to get off.  We had not gone very far when in deeper snow we stopped dead.  Try as we would, no movement could be produced.  Reluctantly we unloaded and began the tedious task of relaying.  The work, in spite of the lighter load on the sledge, proved terrific for ourselves and for the dogs.  We struggled for four hours, and then set camp to await the evening, when the sun would not be so fierce and the surface might be better.  I must say I feel somewhat despondent, as we are not getting on as well as I expected, nor do we find it as easy as one would gather from reading.”

The two parties met again that day.  Joyce also had been compelled to relay his load, and all hands laboured strenuously and advanced slowly.  They reached the edge of the Barrier on the night of January 30 and climbed an easy slope to the Barrier surface, about thirty feet above the sea-ice.  The dogs were showing signs of fatigue, and when Mackintosh camped at 6.30 a.m. on January 31, he reckoned that the distance covered in twelve and a half hours had been about two and a half miles.  The men had killed a seal at the edge of the sea-ice and placed the meat on a cairn for future use.  One dog, having refused to pull, had been left behind with a good feed of meat, and Mackintosh hoped the animal would follow.  The experiences of the party during the days that followed can be indicated by some extracts from Mackintosh’s diary.

“Sunday, January 31.—­Started off this afternoon at 3 p.m.  Surface too dreadful for words.  We sink into snow at times up to our knees, the dogs struggling out of it panting and making great efforts.  I think the soft snow must be accounted for by a phenomenally fine summer without much wind.  After proceeding about 1000 yds.  I spotted some poles on our starboard side.  We shaped course for these and found Captain Scott’s Safety Camp.  We unloaded a relay here and went back with empty sledge for the second relay.  It took us four hours to do just this short distance.  It is exasperating.  After we had got the second load up we had lunch.  Then we dug round the poles, while snow fell, and after getting down about three feet we came across, first, a bag of oats, lower down two cases of dog-biscuit—­one with a complete week’s ration, the other with seal meat.  A good find.  About forty paces away we found a venesta-lid sticking out of the snow.  Smith scraped round this with his ice-axe and presently discovered one of the motor-sledges Captain Scott used.  Everything was just as it had been left, the petrol-tank partly filled and apparently undeteriorated.  We marked the spot with a pole.  The snow clearing, we proceeded with a relay.  We got only half a mile, still struggling in deep snow, and then went back for the second load.  We can still see the cairn erected at the Barrier edge and a black spot which we take to be the dog.