SNOW BEACONS 25 



secured the sledge, completed our seventeen miles, and 

 camped. 



From 81° S. we began to erect beacons at every nine 

 kilometres. The next day we observed the lowest 

 temperature of the whole of this journey: -31'1° F. 

 The wind was south-south-east, but not very strong. 

 It did not feel Hke summer, all the same. We now 

 adopted the habit which we kept up all the way to the 

 south — of taking our lunch while building the beacon 

 that lay half-way in our day's march. It was nothing 

 very luxurious — three or four dry oatmeal biscuits, that 

 was all. If one wanted a drink, one could mix snow 

 with the biscuit — " bread and water." It is a diet that 

 is not much sought after in our native latitudes, but 

 latitude makes a very great difference in this world. If 

 anybody had offered us more " bread and water," we 

 should gladly have accepted it. 



That day we crossed the last crevasse for a long time 

 to come, and it was only a few inches wide. The sur- 

 face looked grand ahead of us; it went in very long, 

 almost imperceptible undulations. We could only 

 notice them by the way in which the beacons we put 

 up often disappeared rather rapidly. 



On November 2 we had a gale from the south, with 

 heavy snow. The going was very stiff, but the dogs 

 got the sledges along better than we expected. The 

 temperature rose, as usual, with a wind from this 



quarter: +14° F. It was a pleasure to be out in such 



VOL. II. 28 



