Brilliant sunshine and a cloudless sky were an auspicious beginning to the day on which we started upon our attempt to plant the Union Jack, which the Queen had given us, on the last untrodden spot of the world. Yet on leaving the hut where we had spent so many months in comfort, we had a feeling of real regret that never again should we all be together.

The supporting-party started first, and at 10 A.M. we said good-bye to Murray and Roberts, who were to be left behind, and we four of the Southern Party followed with an intense desire to do well for the sake of every one concerned in the Expedition.

Hardly, however, had we been marching for an hour when mishaps began to occur. First of all Socks went dead lame, and soon afterwards, when we were halting to feed ourselves and the ponies, Grisi lashed out and struck Adams just below the knee.

Three inches higher and the blow would have shattered both his knee-cap and his hopes of reaching the South Pole. As it was the bone was almost exposed and he was in great pain, although he said very little about it. What he would have done if he had been completely knocked out it is impossible to imagine, as his interest in the Expedition was intense.

On October 30 we reached Hut Point and with Adams better, the ponies recovered from their lameness, and the weather gloriously fine, we rejoiced to be out at last on the long trail.

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.

In respect to books also we were well supplied, for I took Shakespeare's Comedies with me, Marshall had Borrow's "The Bible in Spain," Adams, Arthur Young's "Travels in France," and Wild "Sketches by Boz." By changing round when we had finished, we had literature enough to keep us going for many hours when we were unable to march.

No literature, however, could prevent us from chafing at the weather which kept us in our bags until the morning of November 9, but the difficulties of travelling over snow and ice in a bad light are practically insurmountable.

When the light is diffused by clouds or mist, it casts no shadows on the dead white surface, which consequently appears to the eye to be uniformly level. Often when we thought that we were marching on a level surface, we would suddenly fall two or three feet, and the strain on the eyes under these conditions was very great.

It is, indeed, when the sun is covered and the weather thickish that one is in danger of snow-blindness, that painful complaint with which we all became too well acquainted during the southern journey.

The only way to guard against an attack is to wear goggles the whole time, but when one is perspiring on account of exertion with the sledges, the glasses fog and they have to be taken off so that they may be wiped. When they were removed, the glare from the surrounding whiteness was intense, and the only relief was to get inside a tent, which was made of a green material very restful to the eyes.

On the night of the 8th the weather cleared, and we saw that we were in a regular nest of crevasses, Marshall and Wild finding that their tent was pitched on the edge of a previously unseen one.

To stand in drift for four days with 24° of frost was so bad for the ponies that we were thankful that their appetites for the hot food we gave to them was not affected, but we wanted to get under way and put some good marches in before we could feel really happy.

The distance as the crow flies from our winter quarters to the Pole is 750 geographical miles and as yet we had only done fifty-one. That a polar explorer needs a large stock of patience in his equipment is not to be denied, and as we lay in our bags anxious to be marching yet unable to move we drew heavy draughts upon our stock.