ve
to come over the same bad ice we had found difficult with the dogs;
but they were nowhere to be seen close at hand as we had expected,
for they were miles out, as we soon saw, still trying to reach Hut
Point by the sea ice round Cape Armitage thaw pool, and on the ice
which was showing a working crack at 30 paces. I couldn't understand
how Scott could do such a thing, and it was only the next day that
I found out that Scott had remained behind and had sent Bowers in
charge of this pony party. Bowers, having had no experience of the
kind, did not grasp the situation for some time, and as we watched
him and his party--or as we thought Captain Scott and his party--of
ponies we saw them all suddenly realise that they were getting into
trouble and the whole party turned back; but instead of coming back
towards the Gap as we had, we saw them go due south towards the Barrier
edge and White Island. Then I thought they were all right, for I knew
they would get on to safe ice and camp for the night. We therefore
had our supper in the tent and were turning in between eleven and
twelve when I had a last look to see where they were and found they
had camped as it appeared to me on safe Barrier ice, the only safe
thing they could have done. They were now about six miles away from
us, and it was lucky that I had my Goerz glasses with me so that we
could follow their movements. Now as everything looked all right,
Meares and I turned in and slept. At 5 A.M. I awoke, and as I felt
uneasy about the party I went out and along the Gap to where we could
see their camp, and I was horrified to see that the whole of the sea
ice was now on the move and that it had broken up for miles further
than when we turned in and right back past where they had camped,
and that the pony party was now, as we could see, adrift on a floe
and separated by open water and a lot of drifting ice from the edge
of the fast Barrier ice. We could see with our glasses that they
were running the ponies and sledges over as quickly as possible from
floe to floe whenever they could, trying to draw nearer to the safe
Barrier ice again. The whole Strait was now open water to the N. of
Cape Armitage, with the frost smoke rising everywhere from it, and
full of pieces of floating ice, all going up N. to Ross Sea.

_March_ 1. _Ash Wednesday_. The question for us was whether we could
do anything to help them. There was no boat anywhere and there was
no one to consult with, for