, who sometimes
did not realize that these leads were not strong enough to bear them.
Vaida went in one day, but managed to scramble out on the far side. He
was induced to return to the land with difficulty, just before the whole
sheet of ice upon which he stood floated out to sea. Noogis, Dimitri's
good leader, wandered away several times during the winter: once at any
rate he seems to have been carried off on a piece of ice, and to have
managed to swim to land, for when he arrived in camp his coat was full of
icy slush: finally he disappeared altogether, all search for him was in
vain, and we never found out what had happened.

[Illustration: CAPE EVANS IN WINTER--E. A. Wilson, del.]

Vaida was a short-tempered strong animal, who must have about doubled his
weight since we came in from One Ton, and he became quite a house-dog
this winter, waiting at the door to be patted by men as they went out,
and coming in sometimes during the night-watch. But he did not like to be
turned out in the morning, and for my part I did not like the job, for he
could prove very nasty. We allowed a good many of the dogs to be loose
this year, and sometimes, when standing quietly upon a rock on the cape,
three or four of the dogs passed like shadows in the darkness, busily
hunting the ice-foot for seals: this was the trouble of giving them their
freedom, and I regret to say we found many carcasses of seal and Emperor
penguins. There was one new dog, Lion, who accompanied me sometimes to
the top of the Ramp to see how the ice lay out in the Sound. He seemed as
interested in it as I was, and while I was using night-glasses would sit
and gaze out over the sea which according to its age lay white or black
at our feet. Of course we had a dog called Peary, and another one
called Cooke. Peary was killed on the Barrier because he would not pull.
Cooke, however, was still with us, and seemed to have been ostracized by
his fellows, a position which in some lop-sided way he enjoyed. Loose
dogs chased him at sight, and when Cooke appeared, and others were about,
a regular steeplechase started. He also came up the Ramp with me one day:
half-way up he suddenly turned and fled for the hut as hard as he could
go: three other dogs came round the rocks in full chase, and they all
gave the impression of thoroughly enjoying themselves.

The question of what ought to be done for the best during the coming
sledging season must have been in the minds of all of u