rot] BACK AT CAPE EVANS 47 
indications there were of wind came from the land and showed 
north-easterly winds off shore. Their direction, however, very 
gradually altered till we were crossing them exactly at right 
angles, indicating due easterly winds from the ridge. Later 
still and farther on towards the Glacier Tongue and Cape Evans 
the indications gradually turned to show south-easterly winds. 
These are the winds which seem chiefly to affect the surface of 
the strait ice during the winter, and as we got on towards the 
Glacier Tongue the snow-covering became increasingly greater, 
as well as the evidence of stronger easterly winds. Extensive 
flatly rounded, hard-surfaced drifts became more abundant and 
afforded excellent going, so that when we were about 6 miles 
from Hut Point we were doing about 2 miles an hour. After 
this, and especially during the 8th mile from Hut Point, we met 
with a lot of hummocky cracks where the ice had been pressed 
up into long ridges, and subsequently had been drifted up, form- 
ing very difficult sastrugi and providing much trouble for a 
sledge. We still had sufficient daylight, and after lunch, moon- 
light, to negotiate these, though it was easy to see how much 
trouble they might give one in the dark, as they did on our way 
out. 
All the day we were watching the changes in some iridescent 
clouds which hung low on the northern horizon. The edges were 
brilliant with pale yellow sunlight, while inside this was a broad 
band of orange yellow, and inside this again a narrow band of 
grey surrounding a large and vivid patch of emerald green. 
There was no trace of the violet and rose pink which charac- 
terises the opalescent cirrus clouds one sees later on when the 
sun is higher in the sky. 
On the actual horizon was a band of rich red with purple 
streaks of cloud on it, giving it a very unusual magenta colour. 
After lunch we had good moonlight and a good windswept, 
snow-covered surface—and though there were more of these 
pressure ridges abreast of Tent Island we had plenty of light 
to negotiate them. 
We had had no wind to-day. The temp. had ranged from 
— 27:3° at Hut Point to — 31° off Glacier Tongue. 
Off Inaccessible Island at 9.30 P.M. we were met by a north- 
erly breeze of force 3, which continued until our arrival at Cape 
Evans. [I well remember when we got into the hut here, and 
