eventually we got Scott's sledge loads up to the hill-crest where our
camp was, James Pigg, instead of welcoming the other pony, broke adrift,
and jumping into the new-comer's shelter, leapt on him, kicked him and
bit him in the back. On March 5 we all started for Hut Point, having
previously sent in Atkinson with the good news that no men's lives were
lost. Wilson and party met us near Castle Rock and led the ponies in
while we dropped the laden sledges, full of pony harness, tents, and
sledging gear, with a sufficiency of pony fodder for a fortnight, down
the ski-slope to Hut Point. It was a fine bit of toboganning and Captain
Scott showed himself to be far more expert than any of us in controlling
a sledge on a slippery slope.

We soon got into the way of climbing around on seemingly impossible
slopes and could negotiate the steepest of hills and the slipperiest of
steep inclines. It was largely a question of good crampons, which we
fortunately possessed.

The month of March and the first half of April, 1911, proved to be the
most profitless and unsatisfactory part of the Expedition. This was due
to a long compulsory wait at Hut Point, for we could not cross the
fifteen miles that lay between our position there and the Cape Evans
Station until sea ice had formed, which could be counted on not to break
away and take us into the Ross Sea in its northward drift. Time after
time the sea froze over to a depth of a foot or even more and time and
again we made ready to start for Cape Evans to find that on the day of
departure the ice had all broken and drifted out of sight. As it was, we
were safely, if not comfortably, housed at Hut Point, with the two dog
teams and the two remaining ponies, existing in rather primitive fashion
with seal meat for our principal diet. By the end of the first week in
March we had converted the veranda, which ran round three sides of the