r as their exercise increases,
and the stronger, harder food toughens their muscles. They are
very different animals from those which we took south last year,
and with another month of training I feel there is not one of them
but will make light of the loads we shall ask them to draw. But we
cannot spare any of the ten, and so there must always be anxiety of
the disablement of one or more before their work is done.

E. R. Evans, Forde, and Gran left early on Saturday for Corner Camp. I
hope they will have no difficulty in finding it. Meares and Demetri
came back from Hut Point the same afternoon--the dogs are wonderfully
fit and strong, but Meares reports no seals up in the region, and as he
went to make seal pemmican, there was little object in his staying. I
leave him to come and go as he pleases, merely setting out the work
he has to do in the simplest form. I want him to take fourteen bags
of forage (130 lbs. each) to Corner Camp before the end of October
and to be ready to start for his supporting work soon after the pony
party--a light task for his healthy teams. Of hopeful signs for the
future none are more remarkable than the health and spirit of our
people. It would be impossible to imagine a more vigorous community,
and there does not seem to be a single weak spot in the twelve good
men and true who are chosen for the Southern advance. All are now
experienced sledge travellers, knit together with a bond of friendship
that has never been equalled under such circumstances. Thanks to
these people, and more especially to Bowers and Petty Officer Evans,
there is not a single detail of our equipment which is not arranged
with the utmost care and in accordance with the tests of experience.

It is good to have arrived at a point where one can run over facts
and figures again and again without detecting a flaw or foreseeing
a difficulty.

I do not count on the motors--that is a strong point in our case--but
should they work well our earlier task of reaching the Glacier will
be made quite easy. Apart from such help I am anxious that these
machines should enjoy some measure of success and justify the time,
money, and thought which have been given to their construction. I
am still very confident of the possibility of motor traction, whilst
realising that reliance cannot be placed on it in its present untried
evolutionary state--it is satisfactory to add that my own view is the
most cautious one held in our party. Day i