PREFACE V 



Another omission is any account of meteorological optics. This is a subject 

 in which I am particularly interested and I gave it constant study when in the 

 South. With the exception however of iridescent clouds I came across no 23heno- 

 menon which appeared to me to involve any new physical principles. All the 

 halos 1 saw appeared to conform to the physical explanation given in such great 

 detail by Pernter in his Meteorologische Optik, and I had not the time or 

 instruments accurately to measure the halos to find small departures from the 

 theory. My study of iridescent clouds led to the formation of a new theory 

 to account for this beautiful natural phenomenon. As this has already been 

 published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society it has 

 not been included in this work. 



The measurement of precipitation is another omission, but this is discussed 

 in its proper place in the book. 



Even with all these omissijns of observations and the strictly limited pro- 

 gramme it would have baen impossible to keep the record complete if I had 

 not received help from other members of the expedition. Captain Scott therefore 

 arranged that during the winter the night watchman should record hourly observa- 

 tions of the aurora and take the midnight and 4 a.m. meteorological observations. 

 But in addition to this I needed help in work which required co-operation and 

 I always found the members of the expedition, from Captain Scott to the cook, 

 willing and ready to accord this help if their own duties would allow. For all 

 this help I am sincerely grateful and to each and all my thanks are due, but 

 naturally I received more help from certain members of the expedition and to 

 them I would like to express my thanks in particular. 



First and foremost I must record my gratitude to Lieutenant H. Bowers 

 of the Royal Indian Marine. Bowers was one of the hardest worked men with 

 the expedition, yet he was always ready to help those who needed help. He 

 could not be idle for a moment, and the whole of his recreation was taken 

 in doing something for someone else. When he needed exercise he would take 

 with him a pony for a walk or go up on to the foothills of Erebus to read 

 the thermometer in one of the outlying screens. His greatest help to me was in 

 connection with the balloon ascents, for he undertook the filling of the balloons 

 while I prepared the instruments to be attached to them. Then, as it was 

 dangerous for one man to go alone in search of the fallen instrument, we went 

 together on many a long tramp over the rocks and sea ice surrounding Cape 

 Evans following the trail of the long silk thread which had been attached to 

 the instrument and should have led us to it. Bowers loved the Antarctic and 

 he was the only man with us who was never heard to anathematize the weather 

 or the discomforts of Polar life. One of the gleams of comfort accompanying 

 the shock of the news of his death with the Polar Party was the knowledge 

 that he would have considered the object worthy of the sacrifice. 



Another busy man always ready to help was G-rifiith Taylor, and it was 

 only through his willingness to take over the meteorological work for a fortnight 



