CHAPTER XIII 



THE RETURN OF THE SUN 



Thursday, August 3. — We have had such a long spell of 

 fine clear weather without especially low temperatures that one 

 can scarcely grumble at the change which we found on waking 

 this morning, when the canopy of stratus cloud spread over us 

 and the wind came in those fitful gusts which promise a gale. 

 All day the wind force has been slowly increasing, whilst the 

 temperature has risen to - 15°, but there is no snow falling 

 or drifting as yet. The steam cloud of Erebus was streaming 

 away to the N.W. this morning; now it is hidden. 



Our expectations have been falsified so often that we feel 

 ourselves wholly incapable as weather prophets — therefore one 

 scarce dares to predict a blizzard even in face of such dis- 

 turbance as exists. A paper handed to Simpson by David,* and 

 purporting to contain a description of approaching signs, to- 

 gether with the cause and effect of our blizzards, proves equally 

 hopeless. We have not obtained a single scrap of evidence to 

 verify its statements, and a great number of our observations 

 definitely contradict them. The plain fact is that no two of our 

 storms have been heralded by the same signs. 



The low Barrier temperatures experienced by the Crozier 

 Party has naturally led to speculation on the situation of Amund- 

 sen and his Norwegians. If his thermometers continuously show 

 temperatures below — 60^, the party will have a pretty bad 

 winter and it is difficult to see how he will keep his dogs alive. 

 I should feel anxious if Campbell was in that quarter. f 



Saturday, August 5. — The sky has continued to wear a dis- 

 turbed appearance, but so far nothing has come of it. A good 

 deal of light snow has been falling to-day; a brisk northerly 



* Prof. T. Edgeworth David, of Sydney University, who accompanied Shackle- 

 ton's expedition as geologist. 



t See Vol. II., Dr. Simpson's Meteorological Report. 



