An unidentified depot -- in the background, marked with a flag -- in a photograph from either an earlier depot journey or the polar journey itself. [1]They reached the depot at 81°. "We turned out as usual at 6 o'clock," Amundsen wrote, "and were ready to start around 8. Before we left, H[elmer] H[anssen] shot one of his dogs -- Bone. It was too old and couldn't keep up. It was big and fat. It was cut open, the innards taken out and the carcass put in the snow cairn we had built -- The weather was not of the best kind when we set off. Fairly thick and wind from the northerly quarter ... minor sastrugi, loose drift .... [At] 1 p.m. we caught sight of the depot. At that point our course was almost exactly in its direction. Reached it at 2 p.m. Everything in order. Judging by appearances, very little snow has fallen. The snowdrift around the depot is about 1 1/2 ft. high. Our average speed is now 3 nautical miles an hour." [2]
Notes:
[1] Roald Amundsen Bildearkiv, Nasjonalbiblioteket.
[2] Roald Amundsen, diary, 30 October, 1911, quoted by Roland Huntford in Race for the South Pole : the expedition diaries of Scott and Amundsen (London : Continuum, c2010), p.95.
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