 CHAPTER XIII THE RETURN OF THE SUN Thursday, August 3, we have had such a long spell of fine clear weather without especially low temperatures that one can scarcely grumble at the change we found on waking this morning when the canopy of stratus clouds spread over us and the wind came in those fitful gusts which promise a gale. All day the wind force has been slowly increasing whilst the temperature has risen to minus fifteen degrees but there is no snow falling or drifting as yet. The steam cloud of Eurebus was streaming away to the north west this morning, now it is hidden. Our expectations have been falsified so often that we feel ourselves wholly incapable as weather prophets, therefore one scares dares to predict a blizzard even in the face of such disturbance as exists. A paper handed to Simpson by David and purporting to contain a description of approaching signs together with the cause and effect of our blizzards proves equally hopeless. Footnote Professor T. Edgeworth David of Sydney University who accompanied Shackleton's expedition as geologist and a footnote. We have not obtained a single scrap of evidence to verify its statements and a great number of our observations definitely contradict them. The plain fact is that no two of our storms have been heralded by the same signs. The low barrier temperatures experienced by the Crozier Party has naturally led to speculation on the situation of Amundsen and his Norwegians. If his thermometers continuously show temperatures below minus sixty degrees the party will have a pretty bad winter and it is difficult to see how he will keep his dogs alive. I should feel anxious if Campbell was in that quarter. Saturday August 5 the sky has continued to wear a disturbed appearance but so far nothing has come of it. A good deal of light snow has been falling today a brisk northerly breeze is drifting it along giving a very strange yet beautiful effect in the north where the strong red twilight filters through the haze. The Crozier Party tell a good story of Bowers who on their return journey with their recovered tent bitted what he called a tent down-haul and secured it around his sleeping bag and himself. If the tent went again he determined to go with it. Our lecture program has been renewed. Last night Simpson gave a capital lecture on general meteorology. He started on the general question of insulation giving various tables to show proportion of sun's heat received at the polar and equatorial regions. Broadly in latitude eighty degrees one would expect about twenty-two percent of the heat received at a spot on the equator. He dealt with the temperature question by showing interesting tabular comparisons between northern and southern temperatures at given latitudes. So far as these tables go they show the south polar summer to be fifteen degrees colder than the north polar but the south polar winter three degrees warmer than the north polar but of course this last figure would be completely altered if the observer were to winter on the barrier. I fancy Amundsen would not concede those three degrees. From temperatures our lecturer turned to pressures and the upward turn of the gradient in high southern latitudes as shown by the discovery expedition. This bears of course on the theory which places an anti-cyclone in the south polar region. Lockyer's theories came under discussion a good many facts appear to support them. The westerly winds of the roaring forties are generally understood to be a succession of cyclones. Lockyer's hypothesis supposes that there are some eight or ten cyclones continuously revolving at a rate of about ten degrees of longitude a day and he imagines them to extend from the 40th parallel to beyond the 60th thus giving the strong westerly winds in the forties and easterly and southerly in 60 degrees to 70 degrees. Beyond 70 degrees there appears to be generally an irregular outpouring of cold air from the polar area with an easterly component significant of anti-cyclone conditions. Simpson evolved a new blizzard theory on this. He supposes the surface air intensely cooled over the continental and barrier areas and the edge of this cold region left by warmer air from the southern limits of Lockyer's cyclones. This would produce a condition of unstable equilibrium with great potentiality for movement. Since as we have found volumes of cold air at different temperatures are very loath to mix, the condition could not be relieved by any gradual process but continues until the stream is released by some minor cause when the ball once started, a huge disturbance results. It seems to be generally held that warm air is passing pullwards from the equator continuously at the high levels. It is this potentially warm air which, mixed by the disturbance of the cold air of the interior, gives to our winds so high a temperature. Such is this theory, like its predecessor it is put up for cockshies and doubtless by our balloon work or by some other observations it will be upset or modified. Meanwhile it is well to keep one's mind alive with such problems which mark the road of advance. Sunday August 6, Sunday with its usual routine, him singing has become a point on which we begin to take some pride to ourselves. With our full attendance of singers we now get a grand volume of sound. The day started overcast. Chalky is an excellent adjective to describe the appearance of our outlook when the light is much diffused and shadows poor. The scene is dull and flat. In the afternoon the sky cleared. The moon over Erebus gave a straw color to the dissipating clouds. This evening the air is full of ice crystals and a stratus forms again. This alteration of clouded and clear skies has been the routine for some time now and is accompanied by the absence of wind which is delightfully novel. The blood of the Crozier Party tested by Atkinson shows a very slight increase of acidity. Such was to be expected and it is pleasing to note that there is no sign of scurvy. If the preserved foods had tended to promote the disease the length of time and severity of conditions would certainly have brought it out. I think we should be safe on the long journey. I have had several little chats with Wilson on the happenings of the journey. He says there is no doubt Cherry Gerard felt the conditions most severely, though he was not only without complaint but continuously anxious to help others. At Propos we both conclude that it is the younger people that have the worst time. Gran, our youngest member, 23, is a very clear example and now Cherry Gerard at 26. Wilson, 39, says he never felt cold less than he does now. I suppose that between 30 and 40 is the best all round age. Bowers is a wonder of course. He is 29. When passed the forties it is encouraging to remember that Peary was 52. Thursday, August 10. There has been very little to record of late and my pen has been busy on past records. The weather has been moderately good and as before wholly incomprehensible. Wind has come from a clear sky and from a clouded one. We had a small blow on Tuesday but it never reached Gale force. It came without warning and every sign which we have regarded as a warning has proved a bogey. The fact is one must always be prepared for wind and never expect it. The daylight advances in strides. Day has fitted an extra sash to our window and the light admitted for the first time through triple glass. With this device little ice collects inside. The ponies are very fit but inclined to be troublesome. The quiet beasts develop tricks without rhyme or reason. China man still kicks and squeals at night. Anton's theory is that he does it to warm himself and perhaps there is something in it. When eating snow he habitually takes too large a mouthful and swallows it. It is comic to watch him because when the snow chills his inside he shuffles about with all four legs and wears a most fretful, aggrieved expression but no sooner has the snow melted than he seizes another mouthful. Other ponies take small mouthfuls or melt a large one on their tongues. This act also produces an amusing expression. Victor and snippets are confirmed wind suckers. They are added all the time when the manger board is in place but it is taken down immediately after feeding time and then they can only seek vainly for something to catch hold of with their teeth. Bones has taken to kicking at night for no imaginable reason. He hammers away at the back of his stall mirrorly. We have covered the boards with several layers of sacking so that the noises cured if not the habit. The annoying part of these tricks is that they hold the possibility of damage to the pony. I am glad to say all the lice have disappeared. The final conquest was affected with a very simple remedy. The infected ponies were washed with water in which tobacco had been steeped. Oats had seen this decoction used effectively with true horses. The result is the greater relief since we had run out of all the chemicals which had been used for the same purpose. I have now definitely told off the ponies for the southern journey and the new masters will take charge on September 1. They will continually exercise the animals so as to get to know them as well as possible. The arrangement has many obvious advantages. The following is the order. Bowers Victor, Evans Pio, Snatcher, Wilson Nabi, Creon Bones, Atkinson Jehu, Keohane Jimmy Pig, Wright Chinaman, Oates Christopher, Cherry Gerard, Michael, myself and Oates Snippets. The first balloon of the season was sent up yesterday by Bowers and Simpson. It rose on a southerly wind, but remained in it for a hundred feet or less. Then for three hundred or four hundred feet it went straight up, and after that directly south over Razorback Island. Everything seemed to go well. The thread on being held tightened and then fell slack as it should do. It was followed for two miles or more running in a straight line for Razorback, but within a few hundred yards of the island it came to an end. The searchers went round the island to try to recover the clue, but without result. Almost identically the same thing happened after the last ascent made, and we are much puzzled to find the cause. The continued proximity of the south-moving air currents above is very interesting. The Crozier Party are not right yet, their feet are exceedingly sore, and there are other indications of strain. I must almost accept Bowers, who, whatever his feelings, went off as gaily as usual on the search for the balloon. Saw a very beautiful effect on my afternoon walk yesterday. The full moon was shining brightly from a quarter exactly opposite to the fading twilight, and the icebergs were lit on one side by the yellow lunar light and on the other by the paler white daylight. The first seemed to be gilded, while the diffused light of day gave to the other a deep, cold, greenish-blue color. The contrast was strikingly beautiful. Friday, August 11. The long-expected blizzard came in the night. It is still blowing hard with drift. Yesterday evening Oates gave his second lecture on horse management. He was brief and a good deal to the point. Not born but made was his verdict on the good manager of animals. The horse has no reasoning power at all, but an excellent memory. Sights and sounds recall circumstances under which they were previously seen or heard. It is no use shouting at a horse. Ten to one he will associate the noise with some form of trouble, and getting excited will set out to make it. It is ridiculous for the rider of a bucking horse to shout, Whoa! I know, said the soldier, because I have done it. Also it is to be remembered that loud talk to one horse may disturb other horses. The great thing is to be firm and quiet. A horse's memory explained the soldier warns it of events to come. He gave instances of hunters and race horses which go off their feed and show great excitement in other ways before events for which they are prepared. For this reason every effort should be made to keep the animals quiet in camp. Rugs should be put on directly after a halt and not removed until the last moment before a march. After a few hints on leading, the lecturer talked of possible improvements in our wintering arrangements. A loose box for each animal would be an advantage and a small amount of litter on which he could lie down. Some of our ponies lie down, but rarely for more than ten minutes. The soldier thinks they find the ground too cold. He thinks it would be wise to clip animals before the winter sets in. He is in doubt as to the advisability of grooming. He passed to the improvements preparing for the coming journey, the nose bags, picketing lines, and rugs. He proposes to bandage the legs of all ponies. Finally he dealt with the difficult subjects of snow blindness and soft surfaces. For the first he suggested dyeing the forelocks, which have now grown quite long. Oates indulges a pleasant conceit in finishing his discourses with a merry tale. Last night's tale evoked shouts of laughter, but alas it is quite unprintable. Our discussion hinged altogether on the final subjects of the lecture as concerning snow blindness. The dyed forelocks seem inadequate, and the best suggestion seems the addition of a sun bonnet rather than blinkers or, better still, a peek over the eyes attached to the head stall. I doubt if this question will be difficult to settle, but the snowshoe problem is much more serious. This has been much in our minds of late, and Petty Officer Evans has been making trial shoes for Snatcher on the vague ideas of our remembrance of the shoes worn for lawnmowing. Besides the problem of the form of the shoes comes the question of the means of attachment. All sorts of suggestions were made last night as to both points, and the discussion cleared the air a good deal. I think that with slight modification our present pony snowshoes made on the grating or racket principle may prove best after all. The only drawback is that they are made for very soft snow and unnecessarily large for the barrier. This would make them liable to be strained on hard patches. The alternative seems to be to perfect the principle of the lawnmowing shoe, which is little more than a stiff bag over the hoof. Perhaps we shall come to both kinds, the first for the quiet animals and the last for the more excitable. I am confident the matter is of first importance. Monday, August 14, since the comparatively short storm of Friday, in which we had a temperature of minus thirty degrees with a fifty mile per hour wind, we have had two delightfully calm days, and today there is every promise of the completion of a third. On such days the light is quite good for three or four hours at midday and has a cheering effect on man and beast. The ponies are so pleased that they seized the slightest opportunity to part company with their leaders and gallop off with tail and heels flung high. The dogs are equally festive and are getting more exercise than they could be given in the dark. The two Esquimmo dogs have been taken in hand by Clisold as I have noted before. He now takes them out with a leader borrowed from Mears, usually little Newgees. On Saturday the sledge capsized at the tide crack. Clisold was left on the snow whilst the team disappeared in the distance. Newgees returned later, having eaten through his harness, and the others were eventually found some two miles away, foul of an ice hammock. Yesterday Clisold took the same team to Cape Roids. They brought back a load of one hundred pounds a dog in about two hours. It would have been a good performance for the best dogs in the time, and considering that Mears pronounced these two dogs useless, Clisold deserves a great deal of credit. Yesterday we had a really successful balloon ascent. The balloon ran about four miles of thread before it was released and the instrument fell without a parachute. The searchers found the clue about two and a half miles to the north when it turned and came back parallel to itself and only about thirty yards distant from it. The instrument was found undamaged and with the record properly scratched. Nelson has been out a good deal more of late. He has got a good little run of serial temperatures with water samples, and however meager his results, they may be counted as exceedingly accurate. His methods include the great scientific care, which is now considered necessary for this work, and one realizes that he is one of the few people who have been trained in it. Yesterday he got his first net haul from the bottom with the assistance of Atkinson and Cherry Garard. Atkinson has some personal interest in the work. He has been getting remarkable results himself and has discovered a host of new parasites in the seals. He has been trying to correlate these with like discoveries in the fishes in hope of working out complete life histories in both primary and secondary hosts. But the joint hosts of the fishes may be the Molesca or other creatures on which they feed and hence the new fields for Atkinson in Nelson's catches. There is a relative simplicity in the round of life in its higher forms in these regions that would seem especially hopeful for the parasitologist. My afternoon walk has become a pleasure. Everything is beautiful in this half light and the northern sky grows redder as the light wanes. Tuesday, August 15, the instrument recovered from the balloon chosen ascent of two and a half miles and the temperature at that height only five or six degrees Celsius below that at the surface. If, as one might suppose, this layer extends over the barrier, it would there be at a considerably higher temperature than the surface that Simpson has imagined, a very cold surface layer on the barrier. The acetylene has suddenly failed and I find myself at this moment writing by daylight for the first time. The first addition to our colony came last night when Lassie produced six or seven puppies. We are keeping the family very quiet and as warm as possible in the stable. It is very pleasant to note the excellent relations which our young Russians have established with other folk. They both work very hard, Anton having most to do. Dimitri is the more intelligent and begins to talk English fairly well. Both are on the best terms with their messmates and it was amusing last night to see little Anton jamming a felt hat over P. O. Evans's head in high good humor. Right lectured on radium last night. The transformation of the radioactive elements suggestive of the transmutation of metals was perhaps the most interesting idea suggested, but the discussion ranged mainly around the effect which the discovery of radioactivity has had on physics and chemistry in its bearing on the origin of matter, on geology as bearing on the internal heat of the earth, and on medicine in its curative powers. The geologists and doctors admitted little virtue to it, but of course the physicists boomed their own wares which enlivened the debate. Thursday, August 17, the weather has been extremely kind to us of late. We haven't a single grumble against it. The temperature hovers pretty constantly at about minus 35 degrees. There is very little wind and the sky is clear and bright. In such weather one sees well for more than three hours before and after noon. The landscape unfolds itself and the sky colors are always delicate and beautiful. At noon today there was bright sunlight in the tops of the western peaks and on the summit and steam of Erebus. Of late the vapor cloud of Erebus has been exceptionally heavy and fantastic in form. The balloon has become a daily institution. Yesterday the instrument was recovered in triumph, but today the threads carried the searchers in amongst the icebergs and soared aloft over their crests. Anon the clue was recovered beyond and led towards Tent Island, then towards inaccessible, then back to the birds. Never was such an elusive thread. Darkness descended with the searchers on a strong scent for the razorbacks. Fours returned full of hope. The wretched lassie has killed every one of her litter. She is mother for the first time and possibly that accounts for it. When the poor little mites were alive she constantly left them and when taken back she either trod on them or lay on them till not one was left alive. It is extremely annoying. As the daylight comes people are busier than ever. It does one good to see so much work going on. Friday August 18 Atkinson lectured on scurvy last night. He spoke clearly and slowly but the disease is anything but precise. He gave a little summary of its history afloat and the remedies long in use in the Navy. He described the symptoms with some detail, mental depression, debility, syncope, patechiae, livid patches, spongy gums, lesions, swellings and so on to things that are worse. He passed to some of the theories held and remedies tried in accordance with them. Ralph came nearest the truth in discovering decrease of chlorine and alkalinity of urine. Sir Almroth Wright has hit the truth, he thinks, in finding increased acidity of blood, acid intoxication by methods only possible in recent years. This acid condition is due to two salts, sodium hydrogen carbonate and sodium hydrogen phosphate. These cause the symptoms observed and infiltration of fat in organs leading to feebleness of heart action. The method of securing and testing serum of patient was described, titration, a chlorometric method of measuring the percentage of substances in solution and the test by litmus paper of normal or supernormal solution. In this test, the ordinary healthy man shows a normal 30 to 50, the scurvy patient normal 90. Lactate of sodium increases alkalinity of blood but only within narrow limits and is the only chemical remedy suggested. So far for diagnosis, but it does not bring us much closer to the cause, preventives or remedies. Practically we are much as we were before, but the lecturer proceeded to deal with the practical side. In brief, he holds the first cause to be tainted food, but secondary or contributory causes may be even more potent in developing the disease. Damp, cold, overexertion, bad air, bad light, in fact any condition exceptional to normal healthy existence. Remedies are merely to change these conditions for the better. Dietetically, fresh vegetables are the best curatives. The lecturer was doubtful of fresh meat, but admitted its possibility in polar climate. Lime juice only useful if regularly taken. He discussed lightly the relative values of vegetable stuffs, doubtful of those containing abundance of phosphate such as lentils. He touched theory again in continuing the cause of acidity to bacterial action and the possibility of infection in epidemic form. Wilson is evidently slow to accept the acid intoxication theory. His attitude is rather nonproven. His remarks were extremely sound and practical as usual. He proved the value of fresh meat in polar regions. Scurvy seems very far away from us this time, yet after our discovery experience one feels that no trouble can be too great or no precaution too small to be adopted to keep it at bay. Therefore, such an evening as last was well spent. It is certain we shall not have the disease here, but one cannot foresee equally certain avoidance in the southern journey to come. All one can do is to take every possible precaution. Ran over to Tent Island this afternoon and climbed to the top. I have not been there since 1903. Was struck with great amount of loose sand. It seemed to get smaller and green from south to north. Find view from top of island. One specially notices the gap left by the breaking up of the glacier tongue. The distance to the top of the island in back is between seven and eight statute miles and the run in this weather is fine healthy exercise. Standing on the island today with a glorious view of mountains, islands and glaciers I thought how very different must be the outlook of the Norwegians. A dreary white plain of barrier behind and an uninviting stretch of sea ice in front. With no landmarks nothing to guide if the light fails it is probable that they venture but a very short distance from their hut. The prospects of such a situation do not smile on us. The weather remains fine. This is the sixth day without wind. End of first part of chapter 13. Section 28 of Scott's Last Expedition volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org. Scott's Last Expedition volume 1. The journals of Robert Falcon Scott arranged by Leonard Huxley. Second part of chapter 13. The Return of the Sun. Sunday August 20. The long expected blizzard came yesterday. A good honest blow. The drift vanishing long before the wind. This and the rise of temperature to two degrees has smoothed and polished all ice or snow surfaces. A few days ago I could walk anywhere in my soft finesco with seal skin soles. Today it needed great caution to prevent tumbles. I think there has been a good deal of oblation. The sky is clear today but the wind still strong though warm. I went along the shore of the North Bay and climbed to the glacier over one of the drifted faults in the ice face. It is steep and slippery but by this way one can arrive above the ramp without touching rock and thus avoid cutting soft footwear. The ice problems in our neighborhood become more fascinating and elusive as one reexamines them by the returning light. Some will be solved. Monday August 21. Weights and measurements last evening. We have remained surprisingly constant. There seems to have been improvement in lung power and grip as shown by spirometer and dynamometer but weights have altered very little. I have gone up nearly three pounds in winter but the increase has occurred during the last month when I have been taking more exercise. Certainly there is every reason to be satisfied with the general state of health. The ponies are becoming a handful. Three of the four exercised today so far have run away. Christopher and snippets broke away from oats and Victor from bowers. Nothing but high spirits there is no vice in these animals but I fear we are going to have trouble with sledges and snowshoes. At present the soldier dare not issue oats or the animals would become quite unmanageable. Bran is running low. He wishes he had more of it. Tuesday August 22. I am renewing study of glacier problems. The face of the ice cliff three hundred yards east of the homestead is full of enigmas. Yesterday evening Ponting gave us a lecture on his Indian travels. He is very frank in acknowledging his debt to guidebooks for information. Nevertheless he tells his story well and his slides are wonderful. In personal reminiscence he is distinctly dramatic. He thrilled us a good deal last night with a vivid description of the sunrise in the sacred city of Benares. In the first dim light the wading, praying multitude of bathers, the wonderful ritual and its incessant performance. Then as the sun approaches the hush the effect of thousands of worshipers waiting in silence, a silence to be felt. Finally as the first rays appear the swelling roar of a single word from tens of thousands of throats. Amba! It was artistic to follow this picture of life with the gruesome horrors of the ghat. This impressionist style of lecturing is very attractive and must essentially cover a great deal of ground. So we saw Jpore, Udaipore, Darjeeling and a confusing number of places, temples, monuments and tombs in profusion with remarkable pictures of the wonderful Taj Mahal. Horses, elephants, alligators, wild boars and flamingos, warriors, fociers and nouch girls. An impression here and an impression there. It is worth remembering how attractive this style can be. In lecturing one is inclined to give too much attention to connecting links which join one episode to another. A lecture need not be a connected story. Perhaps it is better it should not be. It was my night on duty last night and I watched the oncoming of a blizzard with exceptional beginnings. The sky became very gradually overcast between 1 and 4 a.m. About 2.30 the temperature rose on a steep grade from minus 20 degrees to minus 3 degrees. The barometer was falling rapidly for these regions. Soon after four the wind came with a rush but without snow or drift. For a time it was more gusty than has ever yet been recorded even in this region. In one gust the wind rose from 4 to 68 miles per hour and fell again to 20 miles per hour within a minute. Another reached 80 miles per hour but not from such a low point of origin. The effect in the hut was curious. For a space all would be quiet then a shattering blast would descend with a clatter and rattle past ventilator and chimneys so sudden so threatening that it was comforting to remember the solid structure of our building. The suction of such a gust is so heavy that even the heavy snow covered roof of the stable completely sheltered on the least side of the main building is violently shaken. One could well imagine the plight of our adventurers at Cape Crozier when their roof was destroyed. The snow which came at six lessened the gustiness and brought the ordinary phenomena of a blizzard. It is blowing hard today with broken windy clouds and roving bodies of drift. A wild day for the return of the sun. Had it been fine today we should have seen the sun for the first time. Yesterday it's shown on the lower foothills to the west but today we see nothing but gilded drift clouds yet it is grand to have daylight rushing at one. Wednesday, August 23. We toasted the sun in champagne last night coupling Victor Campbell's name as his birthday coincides. The return of the sun could not be appreciated as we have not had a glimpse of it and the taste of the champagne went wholly unappreciated. It was a very mild revel. Meanwhile the gale continues. It's full force broke last night with an average of nearly 70 miles per hour for some hours. The temperature has been up to 10 degrees and the snowfall heavy. At seven this morning the air was thicker with whirling drift than it has ever been. It seems as though the violence of the storms which succeed our rare spells of fine weather is in proportion to the duration of the spells. Thursday, August 24. Another night and day of furious wind and drift and still no sign of the end. The temperature has been as high as 16 degrees. Now and again the snow ceases and then the drift rapidly diminishes but such an interval is soon followed by fresh clouds of snow. It is quite warm outside. One can go about with head uncovered which leads me to suppose that one does get hardened to cold to some extent. For I suppose one would not wish to remain uncovered in a storm in England if the temperature showed 16 degrees of frost. This is the third day of confinement to the hut. It grows tedious but there is no help as it is too thick to see more than a few yards out of doors. Friday, August 25. The gale continued all night and it blows hard this morning but the sky is clear, the drift has ceased and the few well-backed clouds about arabus carry a promise of improving conditions. Last night there was an intensely black cloud low on the northern horizon but for earlier experience of the winter one would have sworn to it as a water sky but I think the phenomenon is due to the shadow of retreating drift clouds. This morning the sky is clear to the north so that the sea ice cannot have broken out in the sound. During snowy gales it is almost necessary to dress oneself in wind clothes if one ventures outside for the briefest periods. Exposed woolen or cloth materials become heavy with powdery crystals in a minute or two and when brought into the warmth of the hut are soon ringing wet. Where there is no drift it is quicker and easier to slip on an overcoat. It is not often I have a sentimental attachment for articles of clothing but I must confess an affection for my veteran uniform overcoat inspired by its persistent utility. I find that it is 23 years of age and can testify to its strenuous existence. It has been spared neither rain, wind, nor salt sea spray, tropic heat, nor arctic cold. It has outlived many sets of buttons from their glittering gilded youth to green old age and it supports its four stripe shoulder straps as gaily as the single lace ring of the early days which proclaimed it the possession of a humble sublutinent. With all it is still a very long way from the fate of the one horse shea. Taylor gave us his final physiographical lecture last night. It was completely illustrated with slides made from our own negatives, hauntings alpine work, and the choicest illustrations of certain scientific books. The preparation of the slides had involved a good deal of work for haunting as well as for the lecturer. The lecture dealt with icy erosion and the pictures made it easy to follow the comparison of our own mountain forms and glacial contours with those that have received so much attention elsewhere. Noticeable differences are the absence of moraine material on the outer surfaces of our glaciers, their relatively insignificant movement, their steep sides, etc. It is difficult to convey the bearing of the difference or similarity of various features common to the pictures under comparison without their aid. It is sufficient to note that the points to which the lecturer called attention were pretty obvious and that the lecture was exceedingly instructive. The origin of CIRC's or CWM's, of which we have remarkably fine examples, is still a little mysterious. One notes also the requirement of observation which might throw light on the erosion of previous ages. After Taylor's effort Ponting showed a number of very beautiful slides of alpine scenery, not a few are triumphs of the photographer's art. As a wind-up Ponting took a flashlight photograph of our hut converted into a lecture hall. A certain amount of faking will be required but I think this is very allowable under the circumstances. Oates tells me that one of the ponies, snippets, will eat lubber. The possible uses of such an animal are remarkable. The gravel on the north side of the hut against which the stable is built has been slowly but surely worn down, leaving gaps under the boarding. Through these gaps and our floor we get an unpleasantly strong stable effluvium especially when the wind is strong. We are trying to stuff the holes up but have not had much success so far. Saturday, August 26, a dying wind and clear sky yesterday and almost calm today. The noon sun is caught off by the long low foot slope of arabes which runs to Cape Royce. Went up the ramp at noon yesterday and found no advantage. One should go over the flow to get the earliest sight and yesterday afternoon Evans caught a last glimpse of the upper limb from that situation, whilst Simpson saw the same from Windbane Hill. The ponies are very buckish and can scarcely be held in at exercise. It seems certain that they feel the return of daylight. They were out in morning and afternoon yesterday. Oats and Anton took out Christopher and snippets rather later. Both ponies broke away within fifty yards of the stable and galloped away over the flow. It was nearly an hour before they could be rounded up. Such escapades are the result of high spirits. There is no vice in the animals. We have had comparatively little aurora of late, but last night was an exception. There was a good display at three a.m. P.M. Just before lunch the sunshine could be seen gilding the flow and Ponting and I walked out to the birds. The nearest one has been overturned and is easily climbed. From the top we could see the sun clear over the rugged outline of Cape Barn. It was glorious to stand bathed in brilliant sunshine once more. We felt very young, saying and cheered. We were reminded of a bright frosty morning in England. Everything sparkled and the air had the same crisp feel. There is little new to be said of the return of the sun in polar regions, yet it is such a very real and important event that one cannot pass it in silence. It changes the outlook on life of every individual. Foul weather is robbed of its terrors. If it is stormy today it will be fine tomorrow or the next day and each day's delay will mean a brighter outlook when the sky is clear. Climbed the ramp in the afternoon, the shouts and songs of men and the neighing of horses born to my ears as I clambered over its copies. We are now pretty well convinced that the ramp is a moraine resting on a platform of ice. The sun rested on the sunshine recorder for a few minutes but made no visible impression. We did not get our first record in the discovery until September. It is surprising that so little heat should be associated with such a flood of light. Sunday, August 27, overcast sky and chill southeasterly wind. Sunday routine, no one very active, had a run to South Bay over Domaine. Monday, August 28, Ponting and Grand went round the birds late last night. On returning, they saw a dog coming over the flow from the north. The animal rushed towards and left about them with every sign of intense joy. Then they realized that it was our long-lost julek. His mane was crusted with blood and he smelt strongly of seal blubber. His stomach was full but the sharpness of backbone showed that this condition had only been temporary. Daylight he looks very fit and strong and he is evidently very pleased to be home again. We are absolutely at a loss to account for his adventures. It is exactly a month since he was missed. What on earth can have happened to him all this time? One would give a great deal to hear his tale. Everything is against the theory that he was a willful absentee, his previous habits and his joy at getting back. If he wished to get back, he cannot have been lost anywhere in the neighborhood for, as Meers says, the barking of the station dogs can be heard at least seven or eight miles away in calm weather, besides which there are tracks everywhere and unmistakable landmarks to guide man or beast. I cannot but think the animal has been cut off, but this can only have happened by his being carried away on broken sea ice and as far as we know the open water has never been nearer than 10 or 12 miles at the least. It is another enigma. On Saturday last a balloon was sent up. The thread was found broken a mile away. Bowers and Simpson walked many miles in search of the instrument, but could find no trace of it. The theory now propounded is that if there is strong differential movement in air currents the thread is not strong enough to stand to the strain as the balloon passes from one current to another. It is amazing and forces the employment of a new system. It is now proposed to discard the thread and attach the instrument to a flag and staff, which it is hoped will plant itself in the snow on falling. The sun is shining into the hut windows. Already sunbeams rest on the opposite walls. I have mentioned the curious cones, which are the conspicuous feature of our ramp scenery. They stand from 8 to 20 feet in height, some irregular, but a number quite perfectly conical in outline. Today Taylor and Gran took pick and crowbar and started to dig into one of the smaller ones. After removing a certain amount of loose rubble, they came on solid rock, canite, having two or three irregular cracks traversing the exposed surface. It was only with great trouble they removed one or two of the smallest fragments suffered by these cracks. There was no sign of ice. This gives a great leg up to the debris cone theory. Dimitri and Clisold took two small teams of dogs to Cape Roids today. They found some dog prints near the hut, but think these were not made by Julek. Dimitri points far to the west as the scene of that animal's adventures. Parties from Cape Roids always bring a number of illustrated papers, which must have been brought down by the Nimrod on her last visit. The ostensible object is to provide amusement for our Russian companions, but as a matter of fact, everyone finds them interesting. Tuesday, August 29. I find that the card of the sunshine recorder showed an hour and a half's burn yesterday and was very faintly marked on Saturday. Already, therefore, the sun has given us warmth, even if it can only be measured instrumentally. Last night, Mears told us of his adventures in and about Lolo Land, a wild Central Asian country nominally tributary to Lhasa. He had no pictures and very makeshift maps, yet he held us really entranced for nearly two hours by the sheer interest of his adventures. The spirit of the wanderer is in Mears's blood. He has no happiness but in the wild places of the earth. I have never met so extreme a type. Even now he is looking forward to getting away by himself to hot point, tired already of our scant measure of civilization. He has keen natural powers of observation for all practical facts and a quite prodigious memory for such things, but a lack of scientific training causes the acceptance of exaggerated appearances, which so often present themselves to travelers when unfamiliar objects are first seen. For instance, when the spore of some unknown beast is described as six inches across, one shrewdly guesses that a cold scientific measurement would have reduced this figure by nearly a half. So it is with mountains, cliffs, waterfalls, etc. With all the deduction on this account, the lecture was extraordinarily interesting. Mears lost his companion in leader, poor Brooke, on the expedition which he described to us. The parties started up the Yangtze, traveling from Shanghai to Hancao, and thence to Aicheng by steamer, then by houseboat towed by Coolies, through wonderful gorgeous and one dangerous rapid to Chongqing and Chengtu. In those parts the travelers always took the three principal rooms of the inn they patronized that cost 150 cash, something less than four pence. Oranges, 20 a penny. The Coolies with 100 pound loads could cover 30 to 40 miles a day. Salt is got in boars sunk with bamboos to nearly a mile in depth. It takes two or three generations to sink a boar. The lecturer described the Chinese frontier town Quanchin, its people, its products, chiefly medicinal musk pods from musk deer. Here also the wonderful ancient damming of the river and a temple to the constructor who wrote 20 centuries ago, dig out your ditches but keep your banks low. On we are taken along mountain trails over high snow-filled passes and across rivers on bamboo bridges to Wasu, a timber center from which great rafts of lumber are shot down the river. Over fearsome rapids freighted with China men. They generally come through while right, said the lecturer. Higher up the river, Min lived the peaceful Qingming people, an ancient aboriginal stock, and beyond these the wild tribes, the Lolo themselves. They made doubtful friends with a chief preparing for war. Mirs described a feast given to them in a barbaric hall hung with skins and weapons. The men clad in buckskin dyed red and bristling with arms. Barbaric dishes, barbaric music. Then the hunt for new animals. The Chinese Tarkin, the party-colored bear, blue mountain sheep, the golden-haired monkey, and talk of new fruits and flowers and a host of little-known birds. More adventures among the wild tribes of the mountains, the white llamas, the black llamas, and phallic worship. Curious prehistoric caves with ancient terracotta figures resembling only others found in Japan and supplying a curious link. A feudal system running with well-oiled wheels, the happiest of communities. A separation, temporary, from Brooke, who wrote in his diary that tribes were very friendly and seemed anxious to help him and was killed on the day following. The truth hard to gather, the recovery of his body, etc. As he left the country, the Nepali's ambassador arrives, returning from Pekin with large escort and bound for Lhasa. The ambassador half-demented, and Miers, who speaks many languages, is begged by ambassador and escort to accompany the party. He is obliged to miss this chance of a lifetime. This is the meagerest outline of the tale which Miers adorned with a hundred incidental facts. For instance, he told us of the Lolo trade in Green Waxfly. The insect is propagated seasonally by thousands of Chinese who subsist on the sale of the wax produced, but all insects die between seasons. At the commencement of each season, there is a market to which the wild hill Lolo's bring countless tiny bamboo boxes, each containing a male and female insect, the breeding of which is their share in the industry. We are all adventurers here, I suppose, and wild doings in wild countries appeal to us as nothing else could do. It is good to know that there remain wild corners of this dreadfully civilized world. We have had a bright fine day. This morning a balloon was sent up without thread and with the flag device to which I have alluded. It went slowly but steadily to the north and so over the barn glacier. It was difficult to follow with glasses frequently clouding with the breath, but we saw the instrument detached when the slow match burned out. I'm afraid there is no doubt it fell on the glacier and there is little hope of recovering it. We have now decided to use a thread again but to send the bobbin up with the balloon so that it unwinds from that end and there will be no friction where it touches the snow or rock. This investigation of upper air conditions is proving a very difficult matter, but we are not beaten yet. Wednesday, August 30, fine bright day. The thread of the balloon sent up today broke very short off through some fault in the cage holding the bobbin. By good luck the instrument was found in the north bay and held a record. This is the fifth record showing a constant inversion of temperature for a few hundred feet and then a gradual fall so that the temperature of the surface is not reached again for 2,000 or 3,000 feet. The establishment of this fact repays much of the trouble caused by the ascents. Thursday, August 31, went round about the domain and ramp with Wilson. We are now pretty well decided as to certain matters that puzzled us at first. The ramp is undoubtedly a moraine supported on the decaying end of the glacier. A great deal of the underlying ice is exposed but we had doubts as to whether this ice was not the result of winter drifting and summer thawing. We have a little difference of opinion as to whether this moranic material has been brought down in surface layers or pushed up from bottom ice layers as in alpine glaciers. There is no doubt that the glacier is retreating with comparative rapidity and this leads us to account for the various ice slabs about the hut as remains of the glacier but a puzzling fact confronts this proposition in the discovery of penguin feathers in the lower strata of ice in both ice caves. The shifting of levels in the moranic material would account for the drying up of some lakes and the terrace formations in others whilst curious trenches in the ground are obviously due to cracks in the ice beneath. We are now quite convinced that the queer cones on the ramp are merely the result of the weathering of big blocks of agglomerate as weathering results they appear unique. We have not had a satisfactory explanation of the broad roadway faults that traverse every small eminence in our immediate region. They must originate from the unequal weathering of lava flows but it is difficult to imagine the process. The dip of the lavas on our cape corresponds with that of the lavas of inaccessible island and points to an eruptive center to the south and not towards arabus. Here is food for reflection for the geologists. The wind blew quite hard from the north northwest on Wednesday night, fell calm in the day and came from the southeast with snow as we started to return from our walk. There was a full blizzard by the time we reached the hut. Chapter 14 Preparations The Spring Journey Friday, September 1st A very windy night, dropping to gusts in morning, preceding beautifully calm, bright day. If September holds as good as August, we shall not have cause of complaint. Mears and Dmitri started for hut point just before noon. The dogs were in fine form Dmitri's team came over the hummocky tide crack-at-fall gallop, depositing the driver on the snow. Luckily some of us were standing on the flow. I made a dash at the bow of the sledge as it dashed past and happily landed on top. Atkinson grasped at the same object but fell and was dragged merely over the ice. The weight reduced the pace and others soon came up and stopped the team. Dmitri was very quest-fallen. He is extremely active and it's the first time he's been unseated. There is no real reason for Mears' departure yet a while, 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 advanced guard for the summer campaign. I have been working very hard at sledging figures with Bower's able assistance. 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. I think our plan will carry us through without the motors, though in that case nothing else must fail, and will take full advantage of such help as the motors may give. Our spring travelling is to be limited order. E. Evans, Gran and Ford will go out to find and remark Corner Camp. Mears will then carry out as much fodder as possible with the dogs. Simpson, Bower's and I are going to stretch our legs across to the western mountains. There is no choice but to keep the rest at home to exercise the ponies. It's not going to be a light task to keep all these frisky little beasts in order, as their food is increased. Today the change in masters has taken place by the new arrangement. Wilson takes Nobby, Cherry Garrad takes Michael, Wright takes Chinaman, Atkinson takes Jehu. The newcomers seem very pleased with their animals, though they are by no means the pick of the bunch. Sunday, September the 3rd. The weather still remains fine, the temperature down in the minus 30s, all going well and everyone in splendid spirits. Last night, Bower's lectured on polar clothing. He had worked the subject up from our polar library with critical and humorous ability, and since his recent journey he must be considered as entitled to an authoritative opinion of his own. The points in our clothing problems are too technical and too frequently discussed to need special notice at present, but as a result of a new study of arctic precedents, it is satisfactory to find it becomes more and more evident that our equipment is the best that has been devised for the purpose, always accepting the possible alternative of skins for spring journeys, an alternative we have no power to adopt. In spite of this we are making minor improvements all the time. Sunday, September the 10th. A whole week since the last entry in my diary, I feel very negligent of duty, but my whole time has been occupied in making detailed plans for the southern journey. These are finished at last, I'm glad to say. Every figure has been checked by Bower's, who has been an enormous help to me. If the motors are successful, we shall have no difficulty in getting to the glacier, and if they fail, we shall still get there with any ordinary degree of good fortune. To work three units of four men from that point onwards requires no small provision, but with the proper provision it should take a good deal to stop the attainment of our object. I have tried to take every reasonable possibility of misfortune into consideration, and to so organise the parties as to be prepared to meet them. I fear to be too sanguine, yet taking everything into consideration, I feel that our chances ought to be good. The animals are in splendid form. Day by day the ponies get fitter as their exercise increases, and the stronger, harder food tuffens their muscles. They are very different animals from those which we took south last year, and with another month of training I feel there is not one of them, but will make light of the loads we shall ask them to draw. But we cannot spare any of the ten, and so there must always be anxiety of the disablement of one or more before their work is done. E.R. Evans, Ford and Gran, left early on Saturday for corner camp. I hope they will have no difficulty in finding it. Mears and Demetri came back from Hutt Point the same afternoon. The dogs are wonderfully fit and strong, but Mears reports no seals up in the region, and as he wants to make seal pemicam, there was little object in his staying. I leave him to come and go as he pleases, merely setting out the work he has to do in the simplest form. I want him to take fourteen bags of forage—£130 each—to corner camp before the end of October, and to be ready to start for his supporting work soon after the pony-party, a light task for his healthy teams. Of hopeful signs for the future, none are more remarkable than the health and spirit of our people. It would be impossible to imagine a more vigorous community, and there does not seem to be a single weak spot in the twelve good men and true who are chosen for the southern advance. All are now experienced surge travellers, knit together with a bond of friendship that has never been equaled under such circumstances. Thanks to these people, and more especially to Bowers and Petty Officer Evans, there is not a single detail of our equipment which is not arranged with the utmost care and in accordance with the tests of experience. It is good to have arrived at a point where one can run over facts and figures again and again without detecting a flaw or foreseeing a difficulty. I do not count on the motors. That is a strong point in our case, but should they work well our earlier task of reaching the glacier will be made quite easy. Apart from such help I am anxious that these machines should enjoy some measure of success and justify the time, money and thought which have been given to their construction. I am still very confident of the possibility of motor traction whilst realising that reliance cannot be placed on it in its present untried evolutionary state. It is satisfactory to add that my own view is the most cautious one held in our party. Day is quite convinced he will go a long way and is prepared to accept much heavier weights than I have given him. Lashley's opinion is perhaps more doubtful, but on the whole hopeful. Cristled is to make the fourth man of the motor party. I have already mentioned his mechanical capabilities. He has had a great deal of experience with motors, and Day is delighted to have his assistance. We had two lectures last week, the first from Devonam dealing with general geology and having special reference to the structures of our region. It cleared up a good many points in my mind concerning those Nisic-based rocks, the Beacon Sandstone and the Dolorite Intrusions. I think we shall be in a position to make fairly good field observations when we reach the southern land. The scientific people have taken keen interest in making their lectures interesting, and the custom has grown of illustrating them with lanterns slides made from our own photographs, from books or from drawings of the lecturer. The custom adds to the interest of the subject, but robs the reporter of notes. The second weekly lecture was given by Ponting. His store of pictures seems unending and has been an immense source of entertainment to us during the winter. His lectures appeal to all and are fully attended. This time we had pictures of the Great Wall and other stupendous monuments of North China. Ponting always manages to work in detail concerning the manners and customs of the peoples in the countries of his travels. On Friday he told us of Chinese farms and industries, of Hawking and other sports, most curious of all, the pretty amusement of flying pigeons with Aeolian whistling pipes attached to their tail feathers. Ponting would have been a great asset to our party if only on account of his lectures, but his value as pictorial recorder of events becomes daily more apparent. No expedition has ever been illustrated so extensively, and the only difficulty will be to select from the countless subjects that have been recorded by his camera, and yet not a single subject is treated with haste. The first picture is rarely counted good enough, and in some cases five or six plates are exposed before our very critical artist is satisfied. This way of going to work would perhaps be more striking if it were not common to all our workers here. A very demon of unrest seems to stir them to effort, and there is now not a single man who is not striving his utmost to get good results in his own particular department. It is a really satisfactory state of affairs all round. If the southern journey comes off, nothing, not even priority at the pole, can prevent the expedition ranking as one of the most important that ever entered the polar regions. On Friday Cherry Gaward produced the second volume of the SPT on the whole and improvement on the first. Poor Cherry perspired over the editorial, and it bears the signs of labour. The letterpress otherwise is in the lighter strain. Taylor again the most important contributor, but now at rather too great a length. Nelson has supplied a very humorous trifle. The illustrations are quite delightful. The Highwater Mark of Wilson's ability. The humour is local, of course, but I've come to the conclusion that there can be no other form of popular journal. The weather has not been good of late, but not sufficiently bad to interfere with exercise and sea. Thursday, September 14th, another interregnum. I have been exceedingly busy finishing up the southern plans, getting instruction in photographing, and preparing for our jaunt to the west. I held forth on the southern plans yesterday. Everyone was enthusiastic, and the feeling is general that our arrangements are calculated to make the best of our resources. Although people have given a good deal of thought to various branches of the subject, there was not a suggestion offered for improvement. The scheme seems to have earned full confidence. It remains to play the game out. The last lectures of the season have been given. On Monday Nelson gave us an interesting little resume of biological questions, tracing the evolutionary development of forms from the simplest single-cell animals. Tonight Wright tackled the Constitution of Matter with the latest ideas from the Cavendish Laboratory. It was a tough subject, yet one carries away ideas of the trend of the work of the great physicists, of the ends they achieve, and the means they employ. Wright is inclined to explain matter as velocity. Simpson claims to be with J. J. Thompson in stressing the fact that gravity is not explained. These lectures have been a real amusement, and one would be sorry enough that they should end, were it not for so good a reason. I am determined to make some better show of our photographic work on the southern trip than has yet been accomplished. With pointing as a teacher, it should be easy. He is prepared to take any pains to ensure good results, not only with his own work, but with that of others, showing indeed what a very good chap he is. Today I have been trying a colour screen. It is an extraordinary addition to one's powers. Tomorrow, Bowers, Simpson, Petty Officer Evans and I are off to the west. I want to have another look at the ferraglacier, to measure the stakes put out by Wright last year, to bring my sledging impressions up to date. One loses details of technique very easily. And finally, to see what we can do with our cameras. I haven't decided how long we shall stay away or precisely where we shall go. Such vague arrangements have an attractive side. We have had a fine week, but the temperature remains low in the twenties, and today has dropped to minus thirty-five degrees. I shouldn't wonder if we get a cold snap. End of first part of chapter fourteen. Section thirty of Scott's Last Expedition, volume one. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Recording by Morgan Scorpion. Scott's Last Expedition, volume one. The Journals of Robert Falcon Scott, arranged by Leonard Huxley. Second part of chapter fourteen. Preparations. The Spring Journey. Sunday, October 1st. Returned on Thursday from a remarkably pleasant and instructive little spring journey, after an absence of thirteen days from September fifteen. We covered a hundred and fifty-two geographical miles by sledging, a hundred and seventy-five statute miles, in ten marching days. It took us two and a half days to reach Butterpoint, twenty-eight and a half miles geographically, carrying a part of the western party stores which brought our loads to a hundred and eighty pounds a man. Everything very comfortable. Double-tenth great asset. The sixteenth, a most glorious day till four p.m., then cold southerly wind. Recaptured many frostbites. Surface only fairly good. A good many heaps of loose snow which brought sledge upstanding. There seems a good deal more snow this side of the strait. Query. Less wind. Bowlers insists on doing all camp-work. He is a positive wonder. I never met such a sledge-traveller. The Sastrugi all across the strait have been a cross. The main south by east, the other east south east. But these are a great study here. The hard snow is striated with long wavy lines crossed with lighter wavy lines. It gives a sort of herringbone effect. After depositing this extra load, we proceeded up the ferraglass here. Curious low ice-foot on left. No tide-crack. See ice very thinly covered with snow. We are getting delightfully fit. Bowlers treasure all land. Evans much the same. Simpson learning fast. Find the camp life suits me well, except the turning out at night. Three times last night. We were trying nose-nips and face-guards. Marching head-to-wind all day. We reached Cathedral Rocks on the nineteenth. Here we found the stakes placed by right across the glacier, and spent the remainder of the day and the whole of the twentieth in plotting their position accurately. Very cold wind down glacier increasing. In spite of this, Bowers wrestled with the odderlight. He is really wonderful. I have never seen anyone who would go so long with bare fingers. My own fingers went every few moments. We saw that there had been movement and roughly measured it as about 30 feet. The old ferraglass here is more lively than we thought. After plotting the figures, it turns out that the movement varies from 24 to 32 feet at different stakes. This is seven and a half months. This is an extremely important observation. The first made on the movement of the coastal glaciers. It is more than I expected to find, but small enough to show that the idea of comparative stagnation was correct. Bowers and I exposed a number of plates and films in the glacier which have turned out very well, auguring well for the management of the camera on the southern journey. On the twenty-first we came down the glacier and camped at the northern end of the foot. There appeared to be a storm in the strait, cumulus clouds over Erebus and the whalebacks. Very stormy look over Lister occasionally and drift from peaks, but all smiling in our happy valley. Evidently this is a very favoured spot. From thence we jogged up the coast on the following days, dipping into new harbour and climbing the moraine, taking angles and collecting rock specimens. At Cape Bonacci we found a quantity of pure quartz in situ, and in it veins of copper ore. I got a specimen with two or three large lumps of copper included. This is the first find of minerals suggestive of the possibility of working. The next day we sighted a long, low ice wall, and took it at first for a long glacier tongue stretching seaward from the land. As we approached we saw a dark mark on it. Suddenly it dawned on us that the tongue was detached from the land, and we turned towards it, half recognising familiar features. As we got close we saw similarity to our old Erebus glacier tongue, and finally caught sight of a flag on it, and suddenly realised that it must be the piece broken off our old Erebus glacier tongue. Sure enough it was. We camped near the outer end, and climbing onto it soon found the depot of fodder left by Campbell, and the line of stakes planted to guide our ponies in the autumn. So here, firmly anchored, was the huge piece broken from the glacier tongue in March, a huge tract about two miles long, which has turned through half a circle, so that the old western end is now towards the east. Considering the many cracks in the ice mass, it is most astonishing that it should have remained intact throughout its sea voyage. At one time it was suggested that the hut should be placed on this tongue. What an adventurous voyage the occupants would have had. The tongue, which was five miles south of Sea Evans, is now forty miles west, north, west of it. From the glacier tongue we still pushed north. We reached Dunlop Island on the twenty-fourth just before the fog descended on us, and got a view along the stretch of coast to the north, which turns at this point. Dunlop Island has undoubtedly been under the sea. We found regular terrace beaches with rounded water-worn stones all over it. Its height is 65 feet. After visiting the island it was easy for us to trace the same terrace formation on the coast. In one place we found water-worn stones over 100 feet above sea level. Nearly all these stones are erratic, and, unlike ordinary beach pebbles, the undersides which lie buried have remained angular. Unlike the region of the Ferraglacia and New Harbour, the coast to the north of Sibonacci runs on in a succession of rounded bays fringed with low ice walls. At the headlands and in irregular spots the nice thick base rock and portions of moraines lie exposed, offering a succession of interesting spots for a visit in search of geological specimens. Behind this fringe there is a long undulating plateau of snow rounding down to the coast. Behind this again are a succession of mountain ranges with deep cut valleys between. As far as we went these valleys seem to radiate from the region of the summit reached at the head of the Ferraglacia. As one approaches the coast the tablecloth of snow in the foreground cuts off more and more of the inland peaks, and even at a distance it is impossible to get a good view of the inland valleys. To explore these over the ice-cap is one of the objects of the western party. So far I never imagined a spring journey could be so pleasant. On the afternoon of the twenty-fourth we turned back and covering nearly eleven miles camped inside the Glacier Tongue. Afternoon on the twenty-fifth we made a direct course for sea-evans, and in the evening camped well out in the sound. Barra's got angles from our lunch camp and I took a photographic panorama, which is a good deal overexposed. We only got two and a half miles on the twenty-sixth when a heavy blizzard descended on us. We went on against it, the first time I have ever attempted to march into a blizzard. It was quite possible, but progress very slow owing to wind resistance. Decided to camp after we had done two miles. Quite a job getting up the tent, but we managed to do so, and get everything inside clear of snow with the help of much sweeping. With care and extra fuel we have managed to get through the snowy part of the blizzard with less accumulation of snow than I ever remember, and so everywhere all round experience is helping us. It continued to blow hard throughout the twenty-seventh, and the twenty-eighth proved the most unpleasant day of the trip. We started facing a very keen frost-biting wind. Although this slowly increased in force, we pushed doggedly on, halting now and again to bring off frozen features round. It was two o'clock before we could find a decent sight for a lunch camp under a pressure ridge. The fatigue of the prolonged march told on Simpson, whose whole face was frost-britten at one time. It is still much blistered. It came on to drift as we sat in our tent, and again we were weather-bound. At three the drift seized, and we marched on. Wind as bad as ever. Then I saw an ominous yellow fuzzy appearance on the southern ridges of Erebus, and knew that another snowstorm approached. Foolishly hoping it would pass us by, I kept on until inaccessible island was suddenly blotted out. Then we rushed for a campsite, but the blizzard was on us. In the driving snow we found it impossible to set up the inner tent, and were obliged to unbend it. It was a long job getting the outer tent set, but thanks to Evans and Bowers it was done at last. We had to risk frost-britten fingers and hang on to the tent with all our energy. Got it secured inch by inch, and not such a bad speed all things considered. We had some cocoa and waited. At nine p.m. the snow drift again took off. And we were now so snowed up we decided to push on in spite of the wind. We arrived at one fifteen a.m. pretty well done. The wind never let up for an instant. The temperature remained about minus sixteen degrees, and the twenty-one statute miles which we marched in the day must be remembered amongst the most strenuous in my memory. Except for the last few days we enjoyed a degree of comfort which I had not imagined impossible on a spring journey. The temperature was not particularly high. At the mouth of the ferro it was minus forty, and it varied between minus fifteen and minus forty throughout. Of course this is much higher than it would be on the barrier, but it does not in itself promise much comfort. The amelioration of such conditions we owe to experience. We used one-third more than the summer allowance of fuel. This, with our double tent, allowed a cosy hour after breakfast and supper in which we could dry our socks and see, and put them on in comfort. We shifted our foot gear immediately after the camp was pitched, and by this means kept our feet glowingly warm throughout the night. Nearly all the time we carried our sleeping bags open on the sledges. Although the sun does not appear to have much effect, I believe this device is of great benefit even in the coldest weather. Certainly by this means our bags were kept much freer of moisture than they would have been had they been rolled up in the day time. The inner tent gets a good deal of ice on it, and I don't see any easy way to prevent this. The journey enables me to advise the geological party on their best route to Granite Harbour. This is along the shore, where for the main part the protection of a chain of grounded bergs has preserved the ice from all pressure. Outside these, and occasionally reaching to the headlands, there is a good deal of pressed up ice of this season together with the latest of the old broken pack. Travelling through this is difficult, as we found on our return journey. Beyond this belt we pass through irregular patches where the ice, freezing at later intervals in the season, has been much screwed. The hole shows the general tendency of the ice to pack along the coast. The objects of our little journey were satisfactorily accomplished, but the greatest source of pleasure to me is to realise that I have such men as Bowers and P.O. Evans for the Southern Journey. I do not think that harder men or better sledge travellers ever took the trail. Bowers is a little wonder. I realised all that he must have done for the Sea-Crosier Party in their far severer experience. In spite of the late hour of our return, everyone was soon afoot, and I learned the news at once. E. R. Evans, Gran and Ford had returned from the corner-camp journey the day after we left. They were away six nights, four spent on the barrier under very severe conditions. The minimum for one night registered minus seventy-three degrees. I am glad to find that corner-camp showed up well. In fact, in more than one place remains of last year's pony-walls were seen. This removes all anxiety as to the chance of finding the one-ton camp. On this journey Ford got his hand badly frost-bitten. I am annoyed at this, as it argues want of care. Moreover, there is a good chance that the tip of one of the fingers will be lost, and if this happens or if the hand is slow in recovery, Ford cannot take part in the western party. I have no one to replace him. E. R. Evans looks remarkably well, as also Gran. The ponies look very well, and all are reported to be very buckish. Wednesday, October 3. We have had a very bad weather spell. Friday, the day after we returned, was gloriously fine. It might have been a December day, and an inexperienced visitor might have wondered why on earth we had not started to the south. Saturday supplied a reason. The wind blew cold and cheerless. On Sunday it grew worse, with very thick snow, which continued to fall and drift throughout the whole of Monday. The hut is more drifted up than it has ever been. Huge piles of snow behind every heap of boxes and sea. All our paths are fort higher. Yet in spite of this, the rocks are rather freer of snow. This is due to melting, which is now quite considerable. Wilson tells me the first signs of thaw were seen on the seventeenth. Yesterday the weather gradually improved, and today has been fine and warm again. One fine day in eight is the record immediately previous to this morning. E. R. Evans, Devonam and Gran set off to the Turks head on Friday morning, Evans to take angles, and Devonam to geologise. They have been in their tent pretty well all the time since, but have managed to get through some work. Gran returned late night for more provisions and set up again this morning, Taylor going with him for the day. Devonam has just returned for food. He is immensely pleased at having discovered a huge, slick and sided fault in the lavas of the Turks head. This appears to be an unusual occurrence in volcanic rocks, and argues that they are of considerable age. He has taken a heap of photographs and is greatly pleased with all his geological observations. He is building up much evidence to show volcanic disturbance independent of Erebus, and perhaps prior to its first upheaval. Mears has been at hut point for more than a week. Seals seem to be plentiful there now. Dimitri was back with letters on Friday and left on Sunday. He is an excellent boy, full of intelligence. Ponting has been doing some wonderfully fine cinematograph work. My incursion into photography has brought me in close touch with him, and I realise what a very good fellow he is. No pains are too great for him to take, to help and instruct others, whilst his enthusiasm for his own work is unlimited. His results are wonderfully good, and if he is able to carry out the whole of his programme, we shall have a cinematograph and photographic record which will be absolutely new in expeditionary work. A very serious bit of news today. Atkinson says that Jehu is still too weak to pull a load. The pony was bad on the ship and almost died after swimming ashore from the ship. He was one of the ponies returned by Campbell. He has been improving the whole of the winter, and Oates has been surprised at the apparent recovery. He looks well and feeds well, though a very weirdly built animal compared with the others. I had not expected him to last long, but it will be a bad blow if he falls at the start. I am afraid there is much pony trouble in store for us. Oates is having great trouble with Christopher, who didn't at all appreciate being harnessed on Sunday, and again to-day he broke away and galloped off over the flow. On such occasions Oates trudges manfully after him, rounds him up to within a few hundred yards of the stable, and approaches cautiously. The animal looks at him for a minute or two and canters off over the flow again. When Christopher and indeed both of them have had enough of the game, the pony calmly stops at the stable door. If not too late he is then put into the sledge, but this can only be done by tying up one of his forelegs. When harnessed, and after he has hopped along on three legs for a few paces, he is again allowed to use the forth. He is going to be a trial, but he is a good strong pony and should do yeoman service. Day is increasingly hopeful about the motors. He is an ingenious person and has been turning up new rollers out of a bulk of oak supplied by meers, and with Simpson's small motor as a lathe. The motors may save the situation. I have been busy drawing up instructions and making arrangements for the ship, shore station, and sledge parties in the coming season. There is still much work to be done, and much, far too much, writing before me. Time simply flies and the sun steadily climbs the heavens. Breakfast, lunch, and supper are now all enjoyed by sunlight, whilst the night is no longer dark. Notes at the end of volume. When they, after their headstrong manner, conclude that it is their duty to rush on their journey or whether's. Pilgrim's progress. Has any grasped low grey mist which stands ghostlike at eve above the sheeted lands? A bad attack of integrity. Who is man and what his place? Anxious asks the heart perplexed. In the recklessness of space, worlds with worlds thus intermixed. What has he, this atom creature, in the impinitude of nature? F. T. Paul Grave. It is a good lesson, though it may be a hard one, for a man who has dreamed of a special literary fame and of making for himself a rank among the world's dignitaries by such means, to slip aside out of the narrow circle in which his claims are recognised, and to find how utterly devoid of significance beyond that circle is all he achieves and all he aims at. He might fail from want of skill or strength, but deep in his sombre soul he vowed that it should never be from want of heart. Every durable bond between human beings is founded in or heightened by some element of competition. R. L. Stevenson. All natural talk is a festival of ostentation. R. L. Stevenson. No human being ever spoke of scenery for two minutes together, which makes me suspect we have too much of it in literature. The weather is regarded as the very nadir and scoff of conversational topics. R. L. Stevenson. CHAPTER XV. THE LAST WEEKS AT CAPE EVANS. Friday, October 6. With the rise of temperature there has been a slight thaw in the hut. The drips come down the walls and one has found my diary as its pages show. The drips are already decreasing and if they represent the whole accumulation of winter moisture it is extraordinarily little and speaks highly for the design of the hut. There cannot be very much more or the stains would be more significant. Yesterday I had a good look at Jehu and became convinced that he is useless. He is much too weak to pull a load and three weeks can make no difference. It is necessary to face the facts and I have decided to leave him behind. We must do with nine ponies. Chinaman is rather a doubtful quantity and James Pig is not a tower of strength, but the other seven are in fine form and must bear the brunt of the work, somehow. If we suffer more loss we shall depend on the motor and then, well, one must face the bad as well as the good. It is some comfort to know that six of the animals at least are in splendid condition. Victor, Snippets, Christopher, Navi, Bones are as fit as ponies could well be and are naturally strong, well-shaped beasts, whilst little Michael, though not so shapely, is as strong as he will ever be. Today Wilson, Oates, Cherry Gerard, and Creen have gone to hut point with their ponies, Oates getting off with Christopher after some difficulty. At five o'clock the hut point telephone bell suddenly rang. The line was laid by Mears some time ago, but hitherto there has been no communication. In a minute or two we heard a voice and, behold, communication was established. I had quite a talk with Mears and afterwards with Oates. Not a very wonderful fact, perhaps, but it seems wonderful in this primitive land to be talking to one's fellow beings fifteen miles away. Oates told me that the ponies had arrived in fine order, Christopher a little done, but carrying the heaviest load. If we can keep the telephone going it will be a great boon, especially to Mears later in the season. The weather is extraordinarily unsettled. The last two days have been fairly fine, but every now and again we get a burst of wind with drift, and tonight it is overcast and very gloomy in appearance. The photography craze is in full swing. Ponting's mastery is ever more impressive, and his pupils improve day by day. Nearly all of us have produced good negatives. Debenham and Wright are the most promising, but Taylor, Bowers and I are also getting the hang of the tricky exposures. Saturday, October 7th. As though to contradict the suggestion of incompetence, friend Jehu pulled with a will this morning. He covered three and a half miles without a stop, the surface being much worse than it was two days ago. He was not at all distressed when he stopped. If he goes on like this he comes into practical politics again, and I am arranging to give ten-foot sledges to him and Chinaman instead of twelve feet. Probably they will not do much, but if they go on as at present we shall get something out of them. Long and cheerful conversations with Hut Point, and of course an opportunity for the exchange of witnesses. We are told it was blowing and drifting at Hut Point last night, whereas here it was calm and snowing. The wind only reached us this afternoon. Sunday, October 8th. A very beautiful day. Everyone out and about after service, all ponies going well. Went to Pressure Ridge with Ponting and took a number of photographs. So far good, but the afternoon has brought much worry. About five, a telephone message from Nelson's Igloo reported that Clisold had fallen from a burg and hurt his back. Bowers organized a sledge party in three minutes, and fortunately Atkinson was on the spot and able to join it. I posted out over the land and found Ponting much distressed and Clisold practically insensible. At the moment the Hut Point ponies were approaching, and I ran over to intercept one in case of necessity. But the man party was first on the spot, and after putting the patient in a sleeping bag, quickly brought him home to the hut. It appears that Clisold was acting as Ponting's model, and that the two had been climbing about the burg to get pictures. As far as I can make out, Ponting did his best to keep Clisold in safety by lending him his crampons and ice-axe. But the latter seems to have missed his footing after one of his poses. He slid over a rounded surface of ice for some twelve feet, then dropped six feet onto a sharp angle in the wall of the burg. He must have struck his back and head. The latter is confused, and he is certainly suffering from slight concussion. He complained of his back before he grew unconscious and groaned a good deal when moved in the hut. He came to about an hour after getting to the hut, and was evidently in a good deal of pain. Neither Atkinson nor Wilson thinks there is anything very serious, but he has not yet been properly examined, and has had a fearful shock at the least. I still feel very anxious. Tonight Atkinson has injected Morphea, and will watch by his patient. Troubles rarely come singly, and it occurred to me after Clisold had been brought in that Taylor, who had been bicycling to the Turkshead, was overdue. We were relieved to hear that with glasses two figures could be seen approaching in South Bay. But at supper Rite appeared very hot, and said that Taylor was exhausted in South Bay. He wanted brandy and hot drink. I thought it best to dispatch another relief-party, but before they were well round the point Taylor was seen coming over the land. He was fearfully done. He must have pressed on towards his object long after his reason should have warned him that it was time to turn. With this and a good deal of anxiety about Clisold, the day terminates very unpleasantly. Tuesday October 10th. Still anxious about Clisold. He has passed two fairly good nights, but is barely able to move. He is unnaturally irritable, but I am told this is a symptom of concussion. This morning he asked for food, which is a good sign, and he was anxious to know if his sludging gear was being got ready. In order not to disappoint him he was assured that all would be ready, but there is scarce a slender chance that he can fill his place in the program. Mears came from Hutt Point yesterday at the front end of a blizzard. Half an hour after his arrival it was thick as a hedge. He reports another loss, Deake, one of the best pulling dogs, developed the same symptoms which have so unaccountably robbed us before, spent a night in pain and died in the morning. Wilson thinks the cause is a worm which gets into the blood and thence to the brain. It is trying, but I am past despondency. Things must take their course. Ford's fingers improve, but not very rapidly. It is hard to have two sick men after all the care which has been taken. The weather is very poor. I had hoped for better things this month. So far we have had more days with wind and drift than without. It interferes badly with the pony's exercise. Friday, October 13. The past three days have seen a marked improvement in both our invalids. Clistle's insight has been got into working order after a good deal of difficulty. He improves rapidly in spirits as well as towards immunity from pain. The fiction of his preparation to join the motor sludge party is still kept up, but Atkinson says there is not the smallest chance of his being ready. I shall have to be satisfied if he practically recovers by the time we leave with the ponies. Ford's hand took a turn for the better two days ago, and he maintains this progress. Atkinson thinks he will be ready to start in ten days' time, but the hand must be carefully nursed till the weather becomes really summery. The weather has continued bad till today, which has been perfectly beautiful. A fine warm sun all day, so warm that one could sit about outside in the afternoon, and photographic work was a real pleasure. The ponies have been behaving well with exceptions. Victor is now quite easy to manage, thanks to Bowers' patience. Chinaman goes along very steadily and is not going to be the crock we expected. He has a slow pace which may be troublesome, but when the weather is fine that won't matter if he could get along steadily. The most troublesome animal is Christopher. He is only a source of amusement as long as there is no accident, but I am always a little anxious that he will kick or bite someone. The curious thing is that he is quite enough to handle for walking or riding exercise in this table, but as soon as a sludge comes into the program he is seized with the very demon of viciousness, and bites and kicks with every intent to do injury. It seems to be getting harder rather than easier to get him into the traces. The last two turns he has had to be thrown, as he is unmanageable even on three legs. Oats, Bowers and Anton gather round the beasts and lash up one foreleg. Then with his head held on both sides, Oats gathers back the traces. Quick as lightning the little beast flashes round with heels flying aloft. This goes on till some degree of exhaustion gives the men a better chance. But as I have mentioned, during the last two days the period has been so prolonged that Oats has had to hasten matters by tying a short line to the other foreleg and throwing the beast when he lashes out. Even when on his knees he continues to struggle, and one of those nimble hind legs may fly out at any time. Once in the sledge and started on three legs all as well and the fourth leg can be released. At least all has been well until today when quite a comedy was enacted. He was going along quietly with Oats when a dog frightened him. He flung up his head, twitched the rope out of Oats's hands, and dashed away. It was not a question of blind fright, as immediately after gaining freedom he set about most symmetrically to get rid of his load. At first he gave sudden twists, and in this manner succeeded in dislodging two bales of hay. Then he caught sight of other sledges and dashed for them. They could scarcely get out of his way in time. The fel intention was evident all through, to dash his load against some other pony and sledge, and so free himself of it. He ran for bowers two or three times with this design, then made for co-hane, never going off far, and dashing inward with teeth bearing and heels flying all over the place. By this time people were gathering round, and first one and then another succeeded in clamoring onto the sledge that flew by, till Oats, Bowers, Nelson, and Atkinson were all sitting on it. He was trying to rid himself of this human burden as he had of the hay bales, and succeeded in dislodging Atkinson with violence, but the remainder dug their heels into the snow and finally the little brute was tired out. Even then he tried to savage any one approaching his leading line, and it was some time before Oats could get hold of it. Such is the tale of Christopher. I am exceedingly glad there are not other ponies like him. These capers promise trouble, but I think a little soft snow on the barrier may effectually cure them. E. R. Evans and Grant returned to-night. We received notice of their departure from Hutt Point through the telephone, which also informed us that Mears had departed for his first trip to Corner Camp. Evans says he carried eight bags of forage in that the dogs went away at a great pace. In spite of the weather, Evans has managed to complete his survey to Hutt Point. He has evidently been very careful with it and has therefore done a very useful bit of work. Sunday, October 15. Both of our invalids progress favourably. Clisold has had two good nights without the aid of drugs and has recovered his good spirits. Pains have departed from his back. The weather is very decidedly warmer, and for the past three days has been fine. The thermometer stands but a degree or two below zero and the air feels delightfully mild. Everything of importance is now ready for our start and the ponies improve daily. Clisold's work of cooking has fallen on Hooper and Lashley, and it is satisfactory to find that the various dishes and bread-baking maintain their excellence. It is splendid to have people who refuse to recognise difficulties. Tuesday, October 17. Things not going very well, with ponies all pretty well. Animals are improving in form rapidly, even Jehu, though I have ceased to count on that animal. Tonight the motors were to be taken on to the flow. The drifts make the road very uneven, and the first and best motor overrode its chain. The chain was replaced and the machine proceeded, but just sort of the flow it was thrust into a steep inclination by a ridge, and the chain again overrode the sprockets. This time by ill fortune Day slipped at the critical moment, and without intention jammed the throttle full on. The engine brought up, but there was an ominous trickle of oil under the back axle, and investigation showed that the axle casing, aluminium, had split. The casing has been stripped and brought into the hut. We may be able to do something to it, but time presses. It all goes to show that we want more experience in workshops. I am secretly convinced that we shall not get much help from the motors, yet nothing has ever happened to them that was unavoidable. A little more care and foresight would make them splendid allies. The trouble is that if they fail no one will ever believe this. Mears got back from corner camp at eight a.m. Sunday morning. He got through on the telephone to report in the afternoon. He must have made the pace which is promising for the dogs. Sixty geographical miles in two days and a night is good going, about as good as can be. I have had to tell Clistle that he cannot go out with the motor-party to his great disappointment. He improves very subtly, however, and I trust will be fit before we leave with the ponies. Hooper replaces him with the motors. I am kept very busy writing and preparing details. We have had two days of northerly wind, a very unusual occurrence. Yesterday it was blowing southeast, forced eight, temperature negative sixteen degrees, whilst here the wind was north, force four, temp negative six degrees. This continued for some hours, a curious meteorological combination. We are pretty certain of a southerly blizzard to follow, I should think. Wednesday, October 18. The southerly blizzard has burst on us. The air is thick with snow. The close investigation of the motor axle case shows that repair is possible. It looks as though a good, strong job could be made of it. Yesterday Taylor and Debenham went to Cape Roids with the object of staying a night or two. Sunday, October 22. The motor axle case was completed by Thursday morning, and as far as one can see, Day made a very excellent job of it. Since that the motor-party has been steadily preparing for its departure. Today everything is ready. The loads are arranged on the sea ice, the motors are having a trial run, and all remaining well with the weather the party will get away tomorrow. Mears and Dimitri came down on Thursday through the last of the blizzard. At one time they were running without side of the leading dogs. They did not see Tent Island at all, but burst into sunshine and comparative calm a mile from the station. Another of the best dog, Sagan, was smitten with the unaccountable sickness. He was given laxative medicine and appears to be a little better, but we are still anxious. If he really has the disease, whatever it may be, the rally is probably only temporary and the end will be swift. The teams left on Friday afternoon, Sagan included. Today Mears telephones that he is setting out for a second journey to corner camp without him. On the whole the weather continues wretchedly bad. The ponies could not be exercised either Thursday or Friday. They were very fresh yesterday and today in consequence. When unexercised, their allowance of oats has to be cut down. This is annoying, as just at present they ought to be doing a moderate amount of work and getting into condition on full rations. The temperature is up to zero about. This probably means about negative 20 degrees on the barrier. I wonder how the motors will face the drop if and when they encounter it. Day and Lashley are both hopeful of the machines and they really ought to do something after all the trouble that has been taken. The wretched state of the weather has prevented the transport of emergency stores to hut point. These stores are for the returning depots and to provision the discovery hut in case the taranova does not arrive. The most important stores have been taken to the glacier tongue by the ponies today. In the transport department, in spite of all the care I have taken to make the details of my plan clear by lucid explanation, I find that Bowers is the only man on whom I can thoroughly rely to carry out the work without mistake, with its array of figures. For the practical, consistent work of pony training, Oates is especially capable and his heart is very much in the business.