I think Scott felt the sufferings of the ponies more than the
animals themselves. It was different for the dogs. These fairly warm
blizzards were only a rest for them. Snugly curled up in a hole in the
snow they allowed themselves to be drifted over. Bieleglas and Vaida, two
half brothers who pulled side by side, always insisted upon sharing one
hole, and for greater warmth one would lie on the top of the other. At
intervals of two hours or so they fraternally changed places.
This blizzard lasted three days.
We now marched nearly due south, the open Barrier in front, Mount Terror
and the sea behind, for five days, covering fifty-four miles, when, being
now level with the southern extremity of the Bluff, we laid the Bluff
Depot. The bearings of Bluff Depot, as well as those of Corner Camp, are
given in Scott's Last Expedition.
The characteristics of these days were the collapse of two of the ponies,
Bluecher and Blossom, and the partial collapse of a third, Jimmy Pigg,
although the surface hardened, becoming a marbled series of wind-swept
ridges and domes in this region. For the rest the new hands were finding
out how to keep warm on the Barrier, how to pitch a tent and cook a meal
in twenty minutes, and the thousand and one little tips which only
experience can teach. But all the care in the world could do little for
the poor ponies.
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