Mirage is a great feature down here and one of the most common of optical
phenomena on the Barrier; it is often difficult to persuade oneself that
open water does not lie ahead. We passed the scene of Weary Willie's
fight with the dogs during the march and also had an amusing argument as
to a dark object on the snow ahead. 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.
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