Apart from the sledge dogs, we had a bitch called Lassie for breeding purposes, but she was a rotten dog and killed her puppies, so we might as well have left her in New Zealand, where we got her.
The dogs came through the winter very well, and during blizzards they merely coiled themselves up into round balls of fur and let the snow drift over them. Meares and Dimitri kept a very watchful eye over the dog teams, and protected them against the prevailing winds with substantial snow-shelters, always taking the weaker or sick animals into the annexe where Birdie kept his stores, or else into the small dog hospital, which was made by Dimitri and perfected by Meares.
The sun returned to us on the 22nd August. We were denied a sight of it owing to bad weather, for on the 22nd and 23rd August we had a blizzard with very heavy snowfall, and the drift was so great that, when it became necessary to leave the hut for any purpose, the densely packed flakes almost stifled us. We hoped to see the sun at noon on the 23rd when it was denied us on the previous day, but no such luck, the sun's return was heralded by one of our worst blizzards, which continued with very occasional lulls until August 26, when we actually saw the sun, just a bit of it. I saw the upper limb from out on the sea ice, and Sunny Jim at the same time got a sight of it from his observatory hill. How glad we were. We drank champagne to honour the sun, people made poetry concerning it, some of which—Birdie Bowers's lines—found their way eventually into the "South Polar Times." The animals went half dotty over it, frisking, kicking, and breaking away even from their leaders; they seemed to understand so well, these little ponies, that the worst part of the winter was gone—poor ponies! Long before the sun again disappeared below the northern horizon the ponies were no more.
There is not so very much in the statement that the sun had now returned, but the fact, of little enough significance to those without the Antarctic Circle, left something in our minds, an impression never to be effaced—the snowed-up hut surrounded by a great expanse of white, the rather surprised look an the dogs' faces, the sniffing at one's knees and the wagging of tails as one approached to pat their heads, the twitching of the ponies' ears and nostrils, and the rather impish attitude the fitter animals adopted, the occasional kick out, probably meant quite playfully, and above all the grins on the faces of the Russian grooms. Yes, we were all smiling when the sun came back, even the horizon smiled kindly at us from the north. The Barne Glacier's snout lost its inexorable hard gray look and took on softer hues, and Erebus's slopes were now bathed in every shade of orange, pink, and purple. To begin with, we had very little of this lovely colouring, but soon the gladdening tints stretched out over morning and afternoon. We were never idle in the hut, but the sun's return seemed to make fingers lighter as well as hearts.
CHAPTER X
SPRING DEPOT JOURNEY
However well equipped an expedition may be, there are always special arrangements and adaptions necessary to further the labour-saving contrivances and extend the radius of action.
For this reason the short autumn journeys had been undertaken to test the equipment as well as to give us sledging experience and carry weights of stores out on to the Barrier. And now that Wilson had added yet more knowledge to what we were up against, we set Evans and his seamen companions on to the most strenuous preparations for going South with sledges. Thus, while one lot of men were skilfully fitting sledges with convenient straps to secure the loads against the inevitable bumping, jolting, and capsizing, and lashing tank-like contrivances of waterproof canvas on, to contain the component units of food, another set of people would be fastening light wicker or venesta boxes athwart the sledge ends for carrying instruments and such perishable things as the primus stoves and methylated spirit bottles. These sledges were under the particular charge of Petty Officer Evans, and he took delightful pride in his office. What little gray dawn there was enabled him gleefully to inspect the completed sledges as they stood ready in their special groups outside our hut.
The more general type would be the 12 ft. sledge, constructed of light elm with hickory runners. On it were secured venesta wood trays for the tins of paraffin, usually in front, the aforesaid capacious canvas tank, and behind everything the oblong instrument box surmounted by light wooden chocks for holding the aluminium cooker.
All sledges had small manilla rope spans, secured in most seamanlike fashion, to take the towing strain and throw it fairly through the structure of these light but wonderfully strong sledges.