1902] WORK OF THE OFFICERS 229 



in weight in a few cases, but others have put on more than 

 the number of pounds lost ; measurements and strength have 

 shown merely slight fluctuations, but with few exceptions the 

 blood has grown richer. I have no clear idea as to what the 

 meaning of this may be, and I do not think that the doctor 

 has either, but we are inclined to look upon it as a hopeful 

 sign of our well-being. 



'But to return to the manner in which our officers 

 pass their days. It would be difficult to say who is the 

 most diligent, but perhaps the palm would be given to 

 Wilson, who is always at work; every rough sketch made 

 since we started is reproduced in an enlarged and detailed 

 form until we now possess a splendid pictorial repre- 

 sentation of the whole coastline of Victoria Land. Wilson 

 starts his day early by an examination of the breakfast 

 food ; his next business is to see to the ventilation of the 

 living-spaces, which he does so thoroughly that when we 

 come to breakfast there is no complaint about the freshness of 

 the air, though occasionally people appear in fur mits as a 

 mute protest against the temperature. He next takes the 

 eight o'clock meteorological observations, and after the men 

 are told off for the work of the day his business takes him 

 to the superintendence of those who are detailed for bird- 

 skinning and who carry on this work in the main hut. Under 

 his direction a few of the men, and especially Cross, have 

 become quite expert taxidermists, and the collection of pre- 

 pared skins is gradually growing. 



' The rest of his day is devoted to working up sketches and 

 zoological notes, making those delightful drawings for the 

 " South Polar Times," without which that publication would 

 lose its excellence, and performing a hundred and one kindly 

 offices for all on board. He and Shackleton generally journey 

 together to the top of Crater Hill, a height of 950 feet, each 

 day, and return with a record of the temperature at our second 

 outlying station. It is curious that although this temperature 

 is generally lower than that in the ship's screen, it is rarely as 

 low as that off Cape Armitage, and the fact almost seems to 



