144 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [March 



up as the first two were being skinned, so that one may now 

 hope to keep up all future supplies on this side of the ridge. 



As I write the wind is blowing up again and looks like re- 

 turning to the south. The only comfort is that these strong 

 cold winds with no sun must go far to cool the waters of the 

 Sound. 



The continuous bad weather is trying to the spirits, but 

 we are fairly comfortable in the hut and only suffer from lack 

 of exercise to work off the heavy meals our appetites demand. 



Tuesday, March 21. — The wind returned to the south at 

 8 last night. It gradually increased in force until 2 A.M., when 

 it was blowing from the S.S.W., force 9 to 10. The sea was 

 breaking constantly and heavily on the ice foot. The spray 

 carried right over the Point — covering all things and raining 

 on the roof of the hut. Poor Vince's cross, some 30 feet above 

 the water, was enveloped in it. 



Of course the dogs had a very poor time, and we went and 

 released two or three, getting covered in spray during the opera- 

 tion — our wind clothes very wet. 



This is the third gale from the south since our arrival here. 

 Any one of these would have rendered the Bay impossible for 

 a ship, and therefore it is extraordinary that we should have 

 entirely escaped such a blow when the Discovery was in it in 

 1902. 



The effects of this gale are evident and show that it is a 

 most unusual occurrence. The rippled snow surface of the ice 

 foot is furrowed in all directions and covered with briny deposit 

 — a condition we have never seen before. The ice foot at the 

 S.W. corner of the bay is broken down, bare rock appearing for 

 the first time. 



The sledges, magnetic huts, and in fact every exposed ob- 

 ject on the Point are thickly covered with brine. Our seal floe 

 has gone, so it is good-bye to seals on this side for some time. 



The dogs are the main sufferers by this continuance of 

 phenomenally terrible weather. At least four are in a bad 

 state; some six or seven others are by no means fit and well, 

 but oddly enough some ten or a dozen animals are as fit as 

 they can be. Whether constitutionally harder or whether better 

 fitted by nature or chance to protect themselves it is impossible 

 to say — Osman, Czigane, Krisravitsa, Hohol, and some others 



