. At first we thought it was the dog
camp again, but it turned out to be an empty biscuit tin, such is the
deceptive nature of the light. Later we sighted our old blizzard camp and
decided to utilize the walls again. Weary Willie was decidedly worse and
had to be literally jumped along by the pony to which he was attached.
Within half a mile of the walls Weary refused to go farther, and after
wasting some time in vain efforts to urge him on we had to camp where we
were, having only done 101/2 miles. This was very sad, but I took hope from
the fact that Titus, who is usually pretty pessimistic, had not yet given
up hopes of getting him back alive. He had an extra whack of oats at the
expense of the other ponies, and my big beast made up for his shortage by
hauling the sledge towards him with his tethered leg, and forcing his
nose into our precious biscuit tank, out of which he helped himself
liberally at our expense. The sledges were now too light to anchor the
animals, so we had to peg them down with anything we could and bank them
up with snow.

Weary was better the next day (February 20) but we decided at the outset
to go no farther than the Bluff Camp where we had left some fodder. This
was barely 10 miles off, yet my old animal showed signs of lassitude
before the end; there was nothing alarming, however, and we saw the depot
over five miles off which interested the beasts, who see these things and
somehow connect them, in the backs of their silly old heads, with food
and rest. Weary Willie made a decided improvement, so we camped in high
spirits. Captain Scott had asked me if possible to take some theodolite
observations for the determination of the position of Bluff Camp. Ours is
much farther off and farther beyond the Bluff than the old Discovery
Depot A, which was practically the same position Shackleton used. In both
cases, Scott and Shackleton were keeping nearer the coast; now, however,
that the Beardmore has been discovered we can aim straight for that,
which takes one farther east by at least 15 miles off the Bluff. This is
rather an advantage, I think, as close in to this remarkable headland the
onward movement of the Barrier arrested by the immovable hills causes a
terrific chaos of crevasses off the cliffs at the end. These extend many
miles and include some chasms big enough to take the Terra Nova all
standing. Needless to remark, one is well clear of this sort of scenery
with ponies--hence our course. I