i 9 i i] GEOLOGY AT HUT POINT 145 



are in first-rate condition, whilst Lappa is better than he has 

 ever been before. 



It is so impossible to keep the dogs comfortable in the 

 traces and so laborious to be continually attempting it, that we 

 have decided to let the majority run loose. It will be wonderful 

 if we can avoid one or two murders, but on the other hand 

 probably more would die if we kept them in leash. 



We shall try and keep the quarrelsome dogs chained up. 



The main trouble that seems to come on the poor wretches is 

 the icing up of their hindquarters; once the ice gets thoroughly 

 into the coat the hind legs get half paralysed with cold. The hope 

 is that the animals will free themselves of this by running about. 



Well, well, fortune is not being very kind to us. This 

 month will have sad memories. Still I suppose things might 

 be worse ; the ponies are well housed and are doing exceedingly 

 well, though we have slightly increased their food allowance. 



Yesterday afternoon we climbed Observation Hill to see 

 some examples of spheroidal weathering Wilson knew of them 

 and guided. The geologists state that they indicate a columnar 

 structure, the tops of the columns being weathered out. 



The specimens we saw were very perfect. Had some inter- 

 esting instruction in geology in the evening. I should not regret 

 a stay here with our two geologists if only the weather would 

 allow us to get about. 



This morning the wind moderated and went to the S.E. ; 

 the sea naturally fell quickly. The temperature this morning 

 was -f- 17 ; minimum + I][0 But now the wind is increasing 

 from the S.E. and it is momentarily getting colder. 



Thursday, March 23, A.M. No signs of depot party, which 

 to-night will have been a week absent. On Tuesday afternoon 

 we went up to the Big Boulder above Ski slope. The geologists 

 were interested, and we others learnt something of olivines, green 

 in crystal form or oxidized to bright red, granites or granulites 

 or quartzites, hornblende and feldspars, ferrous and ferric oxides 

 of lava acid, basic, plutonic, igneous, eruptive schists, basalts 

 &c. All such things I must get clearer in my mind.* 



* As a step towards 'getting these things clearer' in his mind two spare pages of the 

 diary are filled with neat tables, showing the main classes into which rocks are divided, 

 and their natural subdivisions the sedimentary, according to mode of deposition, chem- 

 ical, organic, or aqueous; the metamorphic, according to the kind of rock altered by heat; 

 the igneous, according to their chemical composition. 



vol. 1 10 



