1911] SMOOTHER SURFACE 45 
Erebus and Terror, some very unusually delicate spider-web-like 
cirrus cloudlets, coloured dark reddish, and looking like tangled 
thread or like unravelled silk—they were slight and thin, but 
very well defined, and they changed very slowly. | 
Monday, July 31, 1911.—We turned out soon after 5 A.M. 
and had calm clear weather again ahead of us, though Terror 
was apparently again in trouble, for it was covered in a cap cloud. 
We had good going and had covered 5% miles in 5% hours 
by the time we reached the edge of the Barrier about 114 miles 
off the Pram Point ridges. 
The surface of the Barrier during this march had to-day be- 
come very much harder and more windswept. It was not cut 
into sastrugi, but polished into low, flatly rounded areas, with 
only occasional drifts of sandy snow, which dragged heavily and 
allowed the feet to sink in through:a thin crust. The difference 
this walking on a hard surface made to the warmth of our feet 
was very noticeable, notwithstanding that the temperature was 
Sell — 577°. ; 
At the Barrier edge we simply ran down a drift slope on to 
the sea ice, which had only a few inches of snow covering, six 
inches at the most as noted by Bowers, and hard and windswept. 
Here again we felt the flow of cold air pouring from the Barrier 
on to the sea ice, so we camped about 100 yards away to be out 
of it and had lunch. The temp. here was — 43°. ‘The sledge- 
meter now showed 38 miles from our camp in the Knoll gap at 
Cape Crozier. From this point to Hut Point was 3 miles, and 
it was again an excellent hardened smooth snow surface all the 
way to Cape Armitage, and rather the same rough, crunchy 
sea ice, with very few snow-covered patches, from Cape Armi- 
tage to Hut Point. 
By the time we reached the hut the sky had become com- 
pletely overcast and the temp. had gone up to —27°. It was 
still quite calm, and the sky cleared again during the night. We 
camped at the hut. [The last day we had been using our oil to 
warm ourselves, since we had a half tin left, having used the first 
half very sparingly. Birdie made a bottom for the cooker out 
of an empty biscuit tin, which was most successful. We cooked 
on Bill’s bag in the middle, generally one of us steadying the 
cooker with his hands. 
It used to be quite a common experience to spill some water 
