On his return he was to take a meridian observation to determine our position.

While he was gone I culled the best dogs from his teams, replacing them with the poorer dogs from the teams of the main party.

The dogs were on the whole in very good condition, far better than on any of my previous expeditions.

I had been throwing the brunt of the dragging on the poorest dogs, those that I judged were going to fail, so as to keep the best dogs fresh for the final spurt.
My theory was to work the supporting parties to the limit, in order to keep the main party fresh; and those men who I expected from the beginning would form the main party at the last had things made as easy as possible for them all the way up.

Ootah, Henson and Egingwah were in this group.