Quan fit or unfit was the most mischievous of all the ponies, for when any one was looking his special delight was to bite his tether, and unfortunately he did this on one occasion when no one was watching him and played havoc with the maize and other fodder. When we tried to catch him he dashed from one sledge to another tearing bags to pieces and trampling the food out, kicking up his heels and showing that he was deliberately destructive, for his distended appearance proved that he had eaten more than his fill.
We left the sea ice on November 3, but instead of finding a better surface on the Barrier, we discovered that the going was more difficult than ever. The ponies, however, pulled magnificently and every hour the pony-leaders changed places with the sledge-haulers. On the next day we wore goggles, as we were already feeling the trying light, and as soon as we had passed the end of White Island the surface became softer and it was trying work for both men and ponies. Still, however, we tramped along, the supporting-party pulling magnificently, and our march for the day was over sixteen miles.
Up to this time we had been blessed with fair weather, but on Guy Fawkes' Day we encountered driving snow which made our steering very wild. In the bad light the sastrugi could not be seen, and the surface was very bad for both ponies and men. Minor mishaps were natural under such conditions, and after Marshall, who was leading Grisi, had got his legs into a crevasse, and soon afterwards Wild, Adams and Marshall had got into another crevasse, there was nothing for it but to pitch camp and wait until the weather cleared.
To our sorrow we had to lie during the whole of the next day in our sleeping-bags except when we went out of them to feed the ponies, for a blizzard was upon us with thick drift. One can scarcely realise how trying it is to be held up by blizzards, unless one has been on a polar expedition and knows that each lost day means also the consumption of 40 lb. of pony feed alone. Nevertheless, we endeavoured to make the best of an irritating situation, and in our one-man sleeping-bags each of us had a little home, where he could read and write and look at his household gods—if he had brought any with him.
During the morning I passed the time reading Much Ado About Nothing—an inappropriate play perhaps for me to be reading when I was worrying over our delay and thought that I had good cause to be.
The blizzard would not have mattered so much if we had only to consider ourselves, for we could save on the food, but if the ponies were to be of much use to us they had to be properly fed.
On the 7th the weather was better, though still very thick and overcast, and cheered by the supporting-party, who were returning to winter quarters, we started off with the ponies pulling splendidly. But almost immediately we found ourselves in a maze of crevasses. The first one which Marshall crossed with Grisi was 6 ft. wide, and when I looked down there was nothing to be seen but a black yawning void.
Crevasses were here, there, and everywhere, and we had to camp between two large ones and wait until the light became better, for to proceed in such weather was to court disaster.
At last we were quite on our own resources, and as regards comfort in the tents were very well off, for with only two men in each tent there was plenty of room. Adams began by sharing a tent with me, but we decided to shift about so that we could take turns with each other as tent-mates.
