of some use perhaps as bulk. Probably
he would have used hay for this purpose at Winter Quarters had our stock
of it not been very limited, for hay takes up too much room on a ship
when every square inch of stowage space is of value. The original weights
of fodder with which we left New Zealand were: compressed chaff, 30
tons; hay, 5 tons; oil-cake, 5-6 tons; bran, 4-5 tons; and two kinds of
oats, of which the white was better than the black. We wanted more bran
than we had.[145] This does not exhaust our list of feeding stuffs, for
one of our ponies called Snippets would eat blubber, and so far as I know
it agreed with him.

We left New Zealand with nineteen ponies, seventeen of which were
destined for the Main Party and two for the help of Campbell in the
exploration of King Edward VII.'s Land. Two of these died in the big gale
at sea, and we landed fifteen ponies at Cape Evans in January. Of these
we lost six on the Depot Journey, while Hackenschmidt, who was a vicious
beast, sickened and wasted away in our absence, for no particular reason
that we could discover, until there was nothing to do but shoot him. Thus
eight only out of the original seventeen Main Party ponies which started
from New Zealand were left by the beginning of the winter.

I have told[146] how, during our absence on the Depot Journey, the ship
had tried to land Campbell with his two ponies on King Edward VII.'s
Land, but had been prevented from reaching it by pack ice. Coasting back
in search of a landing place they found Amundsen in the Bay of Whales.
Under the circumstances Campbell decided not to land his party there but
to try and land on the north coast of South Victoria Land, in which he
was finally successful. In the interval the ship returned to Cape Evans
with the news, and since he was of opinion that his animals would be
useless to him in that region he took the opportunity to swim the two
ponies ashore, a distance of half a mile, for the ship could get no
nearer and the sea-ice had gone. Thus we started the winter with
Campbell's two ponies (Jehu and Chinaman), two ponies which had survived
the Depot Journey (Nobby and James Pigg), and six ponies which had been
left at Cape Evans (Snatcher, Snippets, Bones, Victor, Michael and
Christopher) a total of ten.

Of these ten Christopher was the only real devil with vice, but he was a
strong pony, and it was clear that he would be useful if he could be
managed. Bones, Snatcher, Victor and