If this mission could not be carried out by dogs, then "at all hazard" a man-hauling team was to carry the XS rations to the depot. Meares had been further instructed that in about the first week in February, depending on news received from returning units, he should set out, with dogs, with a view to meeting the returning polar party between latitudes 82° or 82°30' on about 1 March. The objective of these orders was to hasten the party back to Cape Evans before Terra Nova left so that news of the polar conquest could be carried immediately to New Zealand.[126] Scott placed greater emphasis on the former journey than on the latter: "Whilst the object of your third journey is important, that of the second is vital".[99] The substance of these orders was reiterated to Atkinson when he left Scott at the top of the Beardmore Glacier on 22 December 1911.[107]