Dogs of the Australasian Antarctic Expedition: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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The dates for the main exploratory journeys were set as 28 October for Wild, Watson and Kennedy to travel eastwards, and 2 November for Jones, Dovers and Hoadley to go westwards. Wild's party would take the dogs. Harrisson eventually persuaded Wild to allow him to accompany the eastern party as far as the "Hippo" depot to look after the dogs and carry additional supplies. When the party reached the depot, the sledge that had been laid up was gone; with too much weight to carry on a single sledge even with the assistance of the dogs, Wild had no other choice but to include Harrisson and his sledge on the rest of the journey. The dogs were pulling well but were hungry:

{{quote|The dogs were working very well and, if only a little additional food could be procured for them, I knew they could be kept alive. Zip broke loose one night and ate one of my socks which was hanging on the sledge to dry; it probably tasted of seal blubber from the boots. Switzerland, too, was rather a bother, eating his harness whenever he had a chance. {{mdash}} Frank Wild, ''Home of the Blizzard''}}

Despite including an extra man in the party the men were not short of rations but, by the time Wild was forced to turn for home on 27 November, the dog food was exhausted. They fed the dogs with their own biscuit ration for a while, but on 6 December Wild felt he could not risk using any more of the men's dwindling rations. Switzerland was shot and his meat fed to the other two dogs; Zip would not eat it, but Amundsen did not hesitate. A couple of days later, the party managed to catch almost seventy [[snow petrel]]s and collect sixty of their eggs. This bounty assured the dogs survival until they reached a depot with more rations which in turn meant they had sufficient food to be able to reach the camp.{{sfn|Harrisson diary, 1913}}