The first thing to be done in connection with our attempt to reach the Magnetic Pole was to lay depots, and so on September 25, after delay from bad weather, Priestley, Day and I (David) started in the motor-car, dragging behind us two sledges over the ice.

One sledge with its load weighed 606 lb., the other 250 lb., and as soon as Day put the car on her second gear we sped over the floe-ice at a rate of fourteen miles an hour, much to the admiration of the seals and penguins. Accidents, however, both to the car and to Day, who alone of us could be trusted to drive it, hindered us from making our final start until October 5. On that day Brocklehurst took a photograph of the Northern Party and soon afterwards we boarded the car and the sledges and, cheered by those remaining behind, proceeded on our way.

At first Day, Priestley and Roberts accompanied us, but we had only gone a little over two miles, when the snow had become so thick that I did not think it prudent to take the car farther, and accordingly we had to say good-bye to our companions. Strapping on our harness, we toggled on to the sledge rope, and with a "One, two, three and away," we began our long journey over the sea-ice.

On the following morning we had to start our relay work, and dragged the Christmas Tree sledge on first, as we were specially liable to lose parcels off it, for a distance of nearly half a mile. Then we returned and fetched up what we called the Plum Duff sledge, chiefly laden with our provisions.

After a heavy day's work on the following day, we camped for the night close to a seal-hole which belonged to a fine specimen of Weddell seal, but our slumbers were disturbed by the snorting and whistling of the seals as they came up for their blows.

The seals, however, were nothing to the Emperor penguins, which awakened us by their chatter on the morning of the 10th. Evidently they had marched down on our tent during the night to investigate us, and the sounds they made may be described as something between the cackle of a goose and the chortle of a kookaburra.

I saw four of them standing by the sledges, and when they caught sight of me they were much interested, and the conversation between them became very lively. I have no doubt that they took us for penguins of an inferior type, and the tent for our nest. At any rate, they were kind enough to take careful note of our doings, and to give us a good send-off when we left them.

During that day a blizzard was behind us, and as the strength of it increased we found that we could draw both sledges at the same time, which was, of course, a great saving of labour. Tempted, however, to continue our march under these favourable conditions, we went on longer than was wise, with the result that when we stopped it was extremely difficult to get the tent up.

Slipping the tent over the poles placed close to the ground in the lee of the sledge, two of us raised the poles while the other shovelled snow on to the skirt of the tent, which we pulled out by degrees until it was finally spread to its full dimensions. Glad indeed were we to turn in and escape from the biting blast and drifting snow.

This violent blizzard blew throughout the whole of the next day, and we spent it for the most part in our sleeping-bags; but on the 13th we arrived at Butter Point, which is merely an angle in the low ice-cliff near the junction of the Ferrar Glacier valley with the main shore of Victoria Land, and made a depot there.

Altogether we lightened our load by about 70 lb., and we also left letters there for Lieutenant Shackleton and R. E. Priestley respectively, stating that in consequence of our late start from Cape Royds, and also on account of the slowness of our progress thence to Butter Point, we could not return to the Point until January 12 at the earliest, instead of the first week in January, as had been anticipated. Months later we heard that this little depot survived the blizzards, and that Armytage, Priestley and Brocklehurst had read our letters.

A few days later we landed at Cape Bernacchi, and on October 17 we hoisted the Union Jack and took possession of Victoria Land for the British Empire. The geology of Cape Bernacchi is extremely interesting, the dominant type of rock being a pure white coarsely crystalline marble, which has been broken through by granite rocks, the latter in places containing small red garnets.

On the next day we reached a headland where the rocks resembled those at Cape Bernacchi, and Mawson considered that some of the quartz veins traversing this headland would prove to be gold-bearing.

That same night I was attacked by snow-blindness through neglecting to wear my snow-goggles regularly, and as I was no better when the time came for us to march, I asked Mawson to take my place at the end of the long rope, the foremost position in the team. So remarkably proficient was he on this occasion, and afterwards, at picking out the best track for our sledges and in steering a good course, that at my request he occupied this position throughout the rest of the journey.

Uneventful days followed, but by the 23rd it was quite clear that at our rate of travelling—about four statute miles daily by the relay method—we could not get to the Pole and back to Butter Point early in January, so we held a serious council as to the future of our journey towards the Magnetic Pole, and I suggested that the most likely means to get there and back in the time specified by Lieutenant Shackleton would be to travel on half-rations, depoting the remainder of our provision at an early opportunity.

After some discussion, Mawson and Mackay agreed to try this expedient, and we decided to think over the matter for a few days and then make our depot-.

In pursuing our north-westerly course we presently passed a magnificent bay, which trended westwards some five or six miles away from the course we were steering. On either side of this bay were majestic ranges of rocky mountains, parted from one another at the head of the bay by an immense glacier with steep ice falls.

On either side of this glacier were high terraces of rock reaching back for several miles from a modern valley edge to the foot of still higher ranges. It was obvious that these terraces marked the position of the floor of the old valley at a time when the glacier ice was several thousand feet higher and some ten miles wider than it was when we saw it.

We longed to explore these inland rocks, but time was too precious. Later on we discovered that the point opposite which we had arrived was really Granite Harbour, and that its position was not correctly shewn on the chart.

By the night of October 29 we were all thoroughly done up after completing our four miles of relay work, and we discussed the important question whether it was possible to eke out our food supplies with seal-meat so as to avoid putting ourselves on half-rations, and we all agreed that this should be done. The chief problem in connection with the seal-meat was how to cook it without the aid of paraffin oil, for we could not afford paraffin for that purpose.

On the next day we tried the experiment of strengthening the brew of the tea by using the old tea-leaves of a previous meal mixed with the new ones—an idea of Mackay's which Mawson and I did not appreciate at first, though later on we were glad enough to adopt it.

By this time the weather had become warmer, and consequently the saline snow on the sea-ice was sticky, and gripped the runners of the sledges like glue. Only by the greatest exertion could we drag the sledges along even at a snail's pace.

But although we were thoroughly exhausted when we camped on the evening of the 30th, our evening meal revived us so much that we walked over to a small island about three-quarters of a mile distant, which turned out to be a truly wonderful place for a geologist and a perfect paradise for the mineralogist.

On this island, which we afterwards called Depot Island, Mawson discovered a translucent brown mineral, which was proved to be titanium mineral.