THE BARRIER EDGE 5 



After lunch we made better going to Cape Armitage, though 

 there was still no snow here on the rough, rubbly ice, but it was 

 not so bad as what we had been on during the forenoon, where 

 the sea ice was still salt and crunchy, with humps everywhere, 

 formed from the old weathered ice and salt flowers, none bigger 

 than one's fist, allowing the feet to crush between them every step 

 at a different angle. After Cape Armitage the surface became 

 hard and snow covered; and with the best going we met with the 

 whole journey for a short two miles, we quickly reached the edge 

 of the Barrier, finding a good slope of snowdrift where we struck 

 it, and having no difficulty in drawing our sledges up one at a 

 time. There was a snow-covered crack as usual at. the top of the 

 drift, not a working crack, and invisible until broken into. 



Unfortunately, both in going out and in coming back, we 

 reached the Barrier edge in too bad a light to see whether these 

 snowdrifts were quite continuous all along the edge, but from the 

 fact that they were so at the two different points at which we 

 struck the edge in the dark, I think it is probable that the slope 

 is now continuous pretty well everywhere. We rose about 1 2 ft. 

 off the sea ice. 



Coming down the snow slope off the Barrier was a stream of 

 very cold air which we felt first when we were only a few yards 

 from the foot, and lost very soon after reaching the top. [Got 

 both hands bitten going up Barrier all ten fingers.] 



It was now 6.30 P.M., and we camped at 7, the last half hour 

 on the Barrier surface being uphill, and very heavy compared 

 with the easy going on the snow-covered sea ice from Cape Ar- 

 mitage. There was no doubt as to the existence of this slope up ; 

 we confirmed it on our return, and I take it to be a proof that the 

 Barrier at this point has in recent years broken back at any rate 

 half a mile or a mile farther than it did this year for the pre- 

 vious broken edges can be supposed to fill up successively in this 

 way and so to produce a gradient without steps. 



We had nothing but light variable airs all day with a clear 

 sky. The temp, ranged from 24-5 in the morning by Castle 

 Rock to -26-5 at Hut Point and -47 at the edge of the 

 Barrier. 



Thursday, June 29, 1911. We spent a cold night with temp, 

 down to - 56-5 [Frightful cold last night bad night. Bill has 

 hardly slept for two nights clothes beginning to get bad], and 





