i9ii] THE WAYS OF STOREKEEPERS 241 



Although I am loath to believe it there must be some measure 

 of acclimatisation, for it is certain we should have felt to-day's 

 wind severely when we first arrived in McMurdo Sound. 



Tuesday, July II. Never was such persistent bad weather. 

 To-day the temperature is up to +5 to + 7 , the wind 40 

 to 50 m.p.h., the air thick with snow, and the moon a vague 

 blue. This is the fourth day of gale; if one reflects on the 

 quantity of transported air (nearly 4,000 miles) one gets a 

 conception of the transference which such a gale effects and must 

 conclude that potentially warm upper currents are pouring into 

 our polar area from more temperate sources. 



The dogs are very gay and happy in the comparative warmth. 

 I have been going to and fro on the home beach and about the 

 rocky knolls in its environment in spite of the wind it was very 

 warm. I dug myself a hole in a drift in the shelter of a large 

 boulder and lay down in it, and covered my legs with loose snow. 

 It was so warm that I could have slept very comfortably. 



I have been amused and pleased lately in observing the man- 

 ners and customs of the persons in charge of our stores; quite 

 a number of secret caches exist in which articles of value are 

 hidden from public knowledge so that they may escape use until 

 a real necessity arises. The policy of every storekeeper is to 

 have something up his sleeve for a rainy day. For instance, 

 Evans (P.O.), after thoroughly examining the purpose of some 

 individual who is pleading for a piece of canvas, will admit that 

 he may have a small piece somewhere which could be used for 

 it, when, as a matter of fact, he possesses quite a number of 

 rolls of that material. 



Tools, metal material, leather, straps and dozens of items 

 are administered with the same spirit of jealous guardianship by 

 Day, Lashly, Oates and Meares, while our main storekeeper 

 Bowers even affects to bemoan imaginary shortages. Such parsi- 

 mony is the best guarantee that we are prepared to face any 

 serious call. 



Wednesday, July 12. All night and to-day wild gusts of 

 wind shaking the hut; long, ragged, twisted wind-cloud in the 

 middle heights. A watery moon shining through a filmy cirro- 

 stratus the outlook wonderfully desolate with its ghostly illumi- 

 nation and patchy clouds of flying snow drift. It would be 

 hardly possible for a tearing, raging wind to make itself more 



VOL. I 16 



