1912] FISH, FIRE, AND’ FOSSILS 221 
On May 13 we had a wonderful aurora display about 6 p.m. 
and this was believed to be the brightest that had been seen 
at Cape Evans. ‘he greater part of the sky was covered, but 
the most vivid shafts ran north-east and south-west. Debenham 
tried with various exposures to photograph the phenomena, but 
unluckily failed to get any results. We started again our fish 
trap which was let down by digging a hole through the ice; this 
was at first successful and we had a fair number of fish. The 
flesh of these fish was so sweet that they were, in the ordinary 
way, quite unpleasant eating. Archer, by soaking them first in 
vinegar and water, made them much more palatable. Keohane 
and Williamson, after a great deal of trouble, caught some of 
these same fish by hook and line. 
On May 25 we had some slight excitement. Wright needed 
a lamp to heat his magnetic hut, and Nelson and he, while experi- 
menting with one and increasing the pressure in the lamp to give 
a better flare, unluckily managed to burst it. Immediately the 
whole end of the table and part of the floor was a mass of flames. 
With blankets and a fire extinguisher these were soon put out 
and no harm done. Nelson, whose face was down by the lamp 
when the explosion occurred, had a very lucky escape. Our 
fish trap, which had been failing in the number of fish caught 
each day, was blown out to sea with the ice from the North Bay. 
This was a serious loss, but we managed with some wire, iron 
bars, and two hoops to make another but smaller one. About this 
time some of the geological specimens which had been brought 
back by the first and second return parties were handed over to 
Debenham. These had mainly been collected in the scattered 
moraine under the Cloud-maker. To his surprise and joy several 
fossils of plants and small marine animals were found in some 
of these. 
One of the dogs, Vaida, who had been ill since his return, was 
allowed a certain amount of latitude; he frequently came into 
the hut and would take up his position there, appreciating the 
warmth and comfort and strenuously resisting ejection at any 
time. Altogether he regarded himself as having taken on the 
duty of a house dog. 
On June 1, the ice appearing sound, Demetri and Hooper 
with a dog team went to Hut Point, doing the journey there and 
back in the same day. One of the dogs had been lost on our 
