bare outcrops of black basalt. Wilson in our "South Polar Times" wrote
some lines entitled, "The Barrier Silence"--sometimes the silence was
broken by howling blizzard, then and only then, except by the puny
handful of men who have passed this way. Only in Scott's first and
Shackleton's "Nimrod" Expedition had men ever come thus far.

We reached One Top Depot on November 9, and took on four cases of
biscuits and one pair of ski, which brought our loads up to 205 lb. per
man. Even this extra weight permitted us to keep our marches over 12
miles, but we had the virtue of being very early risers, a sledging habit
to which I owe my life.

We snatched many an hour outward and home, ward due to this.

In Latitude 80 degrees we found an extraordinary change in the surface:
so soft in fact that we found ourselves sinking in from 8 to 10
inches--this gave us a very hard day on 13th November when, with load
averaging over 190 lb. per man, we hauled through it for 12 miles. Fears
were expressed for the ponies at this stretch, for here they would be
pulling full loads. The 14th offered no better conditions of surface, but
we stuck it out for 10 hours' solid foot slogging, when we camped after
hauling 12 miles.

Apart from the surface we enjoyed the weather, a wonderful calm and
beautiful blue sky. On November 15, after building a guiding snow cairn,
we continued southward to Lat. 80 degrees 31 minutes 40 seconds S. Long.
169 degrees 23 minutes E., where we camped to await Scott, his party, and
the ponies. I proposed to build an enormous cairn here to mark the 80 1/2
degree depot, so after lunch we inspected ourselves and found nothing
worse than sunburnt faces and a slight thinning down all round.