THE SECOND DEPOT 233 



exceptionally low one. The beginning of March corre- 

 sponds, of course, to the beginning of September in 

 the northern hemisphere a time of year when summer 

 still prevails. We were astonished to find this low tem- 

 perature while summer ought still to have lasted, espe- 

 cially when I remembered the moderate temperatures 

 Shackleton had observed on his southern sledge journey. 

 The idea at once occurred to me of the existence of a 

 local pole of maximum cold extending over the central 

 portion of the Ross Barrier. A comparison with the 

 observations recorded at Captain Scott's station in 

 McMurdo Sound might to some extent explain this. 

 In order to establish it completely one would require to 

 have information about the conditions in King Edward 

 Land as well. The observations Dr. Mawson is now 

 engaged upon in Adelie Land and on the Barrier farther 

 west will contribute much to the elucidation of this 

 question. 



In 81 S. we laid down a depot consisting of fourteen 

 cases of dogs' pemmican 1,234 pounds. For marking 

 this depot we had no bamboo poles, so there was nothing 

 to be done but to break up some cases and use the 

 pieces as marks; this was, at any rate, better than 

 nothing. Personally, I considered these pieces of wood, 

 2 feet high, good enough, considering the amount of 

 precipitation I had remarked since our arrival in these 

 regions. The precipitation we had observed was very 

 slight, considering the time of year spring and summer. 



