28 



TEMPERATURE. 



by the lower thick line, while the observations made on tbe Beardmore Glacier are shown 

 by the thick dotted line which joins the plateau curve to a Barrier curve at each end. 



At present we are not concerned with the temperatures measured on the Beardmore 

 Glacier and the plateau. 



It will be noticed that between the 1st November and ith December all the Barrier 

 temperatures are below those of Cape Evans, and that during tbe few days in November, 

 when there were parties to the north and south of One Ton Camp, tbe southern tempera- 

 tures were the lowest except on two days. During this period the Barrier to the south 

 of One Ton Camp was on the average 10 degrees colder than Cape Evans. On December 5 

 the Barrier was affected by a deep depres.sion which appears to have caused a great 

 inflow of moist warm air from the Ross Sea into the south of the Barrier. The main 

 southern par-ty was at the time near the southern limit of the Barrier 12 miles from the 

 foot of the Beardmore Glacier. 



Readers of Captain Scott's book will remember how serious this storm was to the Southern 

 Party, causing four days' delay and covering the surface with three feet of soft wet snow. 

 The general conditions which accompanied this storm will be considered later ; at present 

 it is important to us as showing that high temperatures occur sometimes on the Barrier 

 as far south as 83|° S. A very remarkable circumstance was that during this period the 

 temperature was higher in the extreme south than at Cape Evans. 



Table 7. 

 To show the Increase of Temperature towards the South. 



Tbe probable cause of this inversion of the geographical distribution of temperature was 

 that the air from the Ross Sea passed first into the south of the Barrier far to the east 

 and then travelled northwards along the western edge, and had become cooled by the time 

 it reached Cape Evans. Support is given to this explanation by the fact that the snowfall 

 was much greater in the south than in the north. 



The weather was disturbed throughout December on the Barrier, and as will be seen 

 from the curve it was not until the 4th January that the Barrier temperatures became again 

 consistently below those of Cape Evans. Throughout January this was so, but it will be 

 noticed that sometimes the Barrier was coldest to the north and sometimes to the south 

 of One Ton Camp. During December the Barrier temperatures had varied on the whole 

 very little from those of Cape Evans ; but in .January the difference steadily increased, except 



