368 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept 



and thus to provide a general background for the more varied 

 adventures of our individual excursions. I am not conscious 

 of colouring the picture highly — the discomforts are far too 

 real to need imaginative treatment — nor is it conceivable that 

 anyone would willingly face such conditions without some 

 sufficient object to compensate for the hardships endured. 



But it must be remembered that all these conditions which 

 I have described are a result of the severe temperatures and 

 storms of the spring. Fortunately for the sledge traveller, as 

 the season advances, the climatic conditions become milder, 

 and in summer the sledging life may become not only bearable 

 but pleasant. It has always seemed to me that scarcely 

 sufficient stress is laid on this difference in Arctic books of 

 travel. One is apt to overlook the fact that the conditions 

 described in the earlier journeys have passed away during the 

 more extended efforts, and that in some of the latter the 

 travellers have actually suffered more from the sun and the 

 heat than from the cold. In point of fact, summer sledging 

 is so different from spring sledging that it might well be con- 

 sidered a separate employment, and therefore the description 

 of a day's travelling in spring can convey no impression of the 

 summer traveller's experiences, unless, of course, he is journey- 

 ing on a high plateau (such as the summit of Victoria Land), 

 where the climate is continuously severe. 



In the South, as compared with the North, we were much 

 handicapped by the late advent of our improved temperature 

 conditions. There is generally a considerable rise in the 

 Northern April ; in May the air can be mild and pleasant, and 

 in June it is sometimes disagreeably warm. In the South we 

 got no marked improvement until the early part of November, 

 which corresponds to the Northern May. December was the 

 finest and mildest month, though the temperature rarely rose 

 above the freezing-point, but even then we had sometimes cause 

 to complain of the heat. 



It would not be possible to describe a typical summer day's 

 sledging, because two days were rarely alike, and so much 

 depended on the direction in which we travelled and on the 



