1903] HODGSON AT WORK 141 



scene. The greater number of these must be removed, as it 

 cannot be hoped that they will be anything but poor creatures ; 

 meanwhile there has been a searching for names, and the 

 latest suggestion is a series including " Plasmon," " Soma- 

 tose," and " Ptomaine " ! 



' I am taking rather longer walks over the hills than I did 

 last winter, as I want to be thoroughly fit for the sledging. As a 

 rule four or five of the dogs come with me, and my appearance 

 outside is the signal for a chorus of welcome ; as we go up the 

 hills my companions scrimmage, playfully or otherwise, the 

 whole time ; then their delight is for me to roll stones down 

 the steeper slopes, when they dash after them at a prodigious 

 speed and in a smother of snow. They are wonderfully sure- 

 footed, and will sometimes bring themselves up in mid-career 

 with extraordinary suddenness, and come trotting up the slope 

 as though it was the easiest of feats.' 



'/u/y 13. — Yesterday Wilson reported an eruption of 

 Erebus, a considerable sheet of flame bursting forth and light- 

 ing up the rolls of vapour, so that he could clearly see the 

 direction in which they were going — a fact impossible to dis- 

 tinguish either before or after ; the flare only lasted for five or 

 ten seconds. These eruptions have been seen before, and 

 possibly many have occurred without being seen, but they are 

 certainly not frequent, and never last for more than a few 

 seconds. I myself have never seen more than a red glare on 

 the cloud of vapour immediately over the crater.' 



'/li/y 16. — Hodgson has been working away throughout the 

 winter in the same indefatigable manner as before. His fish- 

 traps and tow-nets merely go down through a hole in the ice, 

 and there is no great difficulty about working them, but the 

 manner in which he has carried out his dredging is really very 

 cunning, and deserves description. Now and again, and 

 especially after a cold snap, fresh cracks are formed in the ice- 

 sheet across the strait, and these open out perhaps two or three 

 inches. Before the space left has time to freeze thickly, 

 Hodgson goes out with a long line, and presses the bight down 

 between the sides of the crack until it is hanging in a long 



