All
hands were busy with pick and shovel during the day, and moved many
tons of material. Again, on the 9th, there were signs of pressure.
Young ice was piled up to a height of 11 ft. astern of the ship, and
the old floe was cracked in places. The movement was not serious, but
I realized that it might be the beginning of trouble for the
Expedition. We brought certain stores aboard and provided space on
deck for the dogs in case they had to be removed from the floe at short
notice. We had run a 500-fathom steel wire round the ship, snow-huts,
and kennels, with a loop out to the lead ahead, where the dredge was
used. This wire was supported on ice-pillars, and it served as a guide
in bad weather when the view was obscured by driving snow and a man
might have lost himself altogether. I had this wire cut in five
places, since otherwise it might have been dragged across our section
of the floe with damaging effect in the event of the ice splitting
suddenly.
The dogs had been divided into six teams of nine dogs each. Wild,
Crean, Macklin, McIlroy, Marston, and Hurley each had charge of a team,
and were fully responsible for the exercising, training, and feeding of
their own dogs. They called in one of the surgeons when an animal was
sick. We were still losing some dogs through worms, and it was
unfortunate that the doctors had not the proper remedies.
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