I9IO] SKI EXERCISE 33 



One has a number of big humps on top. It is curious to think 

 how these big blocks became perched so high. I imagine the 

 berg must have been calved from a region of hard pressure 

 ridges. [Later] This is a mistake — on closer inspection it is 

 quite clear that the berg has tilted and that a great part of the 

 upper strata, probably 20 feet deep, has slipped off, leaving 

 the humps as islands on top. 



It looks as though we must exercise patience again; progress 

 is more difficult than in the worst of our experiences yesterday, 

 but the outlook is very much brighter. This morning there 

 were many dark shades of open water sky to the south; the 

 westerly wind ruffling the water makes these cloud shadows very 

 dark. 



The barometer has been very steady for several days and 

 we ought to have fine weather : this morning a lot of low 

 cloud came from the S.W., at one time low enough to become 

 fog — the clouds are rising and dissipating, and we have almost 

 a clear blue sky with sunshine. 



Evening. — The wind has gone from west to W.S.W. and 

 still blows nearly force 6. We are lying very comfortably along- 

 side a floe with open water to windward for 200 or 300 yards. 

 The sky has been clear most of the day, fragments of low stratus 

 occasionally hurry across the sky and a light cirrus is moving 

 with some speed. Evidently it is blowing hard In the upper 

 current. The ice has closed — I trust it will open well when 

 the wind lets up. There is a lot of open water behind us. 

 The berg described this morning has been circling round us, 

 passing within 800 yards; the bearing and distance have altered 

 so un-uniformly that it is evident that the differential movement 

 between the surface water and the berg-driving layers (from 

 100 to 200 metres down) is very irregular. We had several 

 hours on the floe practising ski running, and thus got some 

 welcome exercise. Coal is now the great anxiety — we are mak- 

 ing terrible inroads on our supply — we have come 240 miles 

 since we first entered the pack streams. 



The sounding to-day gave 1804 fathoms — the water bottle 

 didn't work, but temperatures were got at 1300 and bottom. 



The temperature was down to 20° last night and kept 2 or 

 3 degrees below freezing all day. 



The surface for ski-ing to-day was very good. 



VOL. I — 3 



