Meares, photographed by Ponting, 1911. [1]Meares and Demetri started for Hut Point with the dog teams.
"There is no real reason for Meares' departure yet awhile," Scott wrote in his diary, "but he chose to go and probably hopes to train the animals better when he has them by themselves. As things are, this seems like throwing out the advance guard for the summer campaign." [2]
"I have been working very hard at sledging figures with Bowers' able assistance," he went on. "The scheme develops itself in the light of these figures, and I feel that our organisation will not be found wanting, yet there is an immense amount of detail, and every arrangement has to be more than usually elastic to admit of extreme possibilities of the full success or complete failure of the motors."
The plan was now that Lt. Evans, Gran, and Forde would go out and re-mark Corner Camp. Meares with the dog teams would then transport as much pony fodder as possible, while Scott with Simpson and Bowers would go on foot to the Western Mountains. The remaining ponies would follow, Wilson with Nobby, Cherry with Michael, Wright with Chinaman, and Atkinson with Jehu.
Notes:
[1] Scott Polar Research Institute.
[2] R.F. Scott, diary, 1 September, 1911, quoted in Scott's Last Expedition, v.1. Summer is, in the southern hemisphere, December, January, and February.
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