ely undergone journeys, in
one case no less than four journeys, of major importance, until they were
absolutely worn out. The successful issue of the party was a triumph of
good management and good fellowship. The saving clause was that as
regards hut, food, heat, clothing and the domestic life generally we were
splendidly found. To the north of us, some hundreds of miles away,
Campbell's party of six men must be fighting for their lives against
these same conditions, or worse--unless indeed they had already perished
on their way south. We knew they must be in desperate plight, but
probably they were alive: the point in their favour was that they were
fresh men. To the south of us, anywhere between us and the Pole, were
five men. We knew _they_ must be dead.

The immediate problem which presented itself was how best to use the
resources which were left to us. Our numbers were much reduced. Nine men
had gone home before any hint of tragedy reached them. Two men had been
landed from the ship. We were thirteen men for this last year. Of these
thirteen it was almost certain that Debenham would be unable to go out
sledging again owing to an injury to his knee: Archer had come to cook
and not to sledge: and it was also doubtful about myself. As a matter of
fact our sledging numbers for the last summer totalled eleven, five
officers and six men.

We were well provided with transport, having the seven mules sent down by
the Indian Government, which were excellent animals, as well as our
original two dog-teams: the additional dogs brought down by the ship were
with two exceptions of no real sledging value. Our dog-teams had,
however, already travelled some 1500 miles on the Barrier alone, not
counting the work they had done between Hut Point and Cape Evans; and,
though we did not realize it at this time, they were sick of it and never
worked again with that dash which we had come to expect of them.

The first thing which we settled about the winter which lay ahead of us
was that, so far as possible, everything should go on as usual. The
scientific work must of course be continued, and there were the dogs and
mules to be looked after: a night-watch to be kept and the meteorological
observations and auroral notes to be taken. Owing to our reduced numbers
we should need the help of the seamen for this purpose. We were also to
bring out another volume of the South Polar Times on Mid-winter Day. The
importance of not allowing any s