improvement, it was impossible not to
realise that the poor beast was dangerously ill. Oates administered
an opium pill and later on a second, sacks were heated in the oven and
placed on the poor beast; beyond this nothing could be done except to
watch--Oates and Crean never left the patient. As the evening wore
on I visited the stable again and again, but only to hear the same
tale--no improvement. Towards midnight I felt very downcast. It is so
very certain that we cannot afford to lose a single pony--the margin
of safety has already been far overstepped, we are reduced to face
the circumstance that we must keep all the animals alive or greatly
risk failure.

So far everything has gone so well with them that my fears of a loss
had been lulled in a growing hope that all would be well--therefore
at midnight, when poor 'Bones' had continued in pain for twelve hours
and showed little sign of improvement, I felt my fleeting sense of
security rudely shattered.

It was shortly after midnight when I was told that the animal seemed
a little easier. At 2.30 I was again in the stable and found the
improvement had been maintained; the horse still lay on its side
with outstretched head, but the spasms had ceased, its eye looked
less distressed, and its ears pricked to occasional noises. As I
stood looking it suddenly raised its head and rose without effort to
its legs; then in a moment, as though some bad dream had passed, it
began to nose at some hay and at its neighbour. Within three minutes
it had drunk a bucket of water and had started to feed.

I went to bed at 3 with much relief. At noon to-day the immediate
cause of the trouble and an indication that there is still risk were
disclosed in a small ball of semi-fermented hay covered with mucus
and containing tape worms; so far not very serious, but unfortunately
attached to this mass was a strip of the lining of the intestine.

Atkinson, from a humanly comparative point of view, does not think
this is serious if great care is taken with the food for a week or so,
and so one can hope for the best.

Meanwhile we have had much discussion as to the first cause of the
difficulty. The circumstances possibly contributing are as follows:
fermentation of the hay, insufficiency of water, overheated stable,
a chill from exercise after the gale--I think all these may have had
a bearing on the case. It can scarcely be coincidence that the two
ponies which have suffered so far are th