"As soon as breakfast was over," wrote Mackintosh the next day, "Joyce and Wild went off with a light sledge and the dogs to lay out the cairns and place flags to the eastward, building them at every mile.

The outer cairn had a large flag and a note indicating the position of the depot.

I remained behind to get angles and fix our position with the theodolite.

The temperature was very low this morning, and handling the theodolite was not too warm a job for the fingers.

My whiskers froze to the metal while I was taking a sight.