i9"l BUILDING THE HUT 19 



in situ [which, it was hoped, would make a large part of one 

 of the walls] was too solidly iced up with ice and gravel to clear 

 out, we chose a spot [a moderately level piece of moraine] 

 some 6 or 8 yards on the lee side of the actual ridge, a position 

 which we thought would be out of the wind's force itself, but 

 which we eventually found was all the more dangerous for that 

 reason, as it was right in the spot where the upward suction 

 was to be at its greatest. At lunch time, 4.15 P.M., we still had 

 a southerly wind of force 4, with the temp, at 13, and this 

 wind we found to be due to the more or less constant flow of cold 

 air down from the slopes of Terror. 



We had a magnificent outlook from this spot where we were 

 building our hut. To the east we looked out over the Great 

 Barrier with the whole range of pressure ridges laid out at our 

 feet, about 800 feet below [looking as if giants had been plough- 

 ing up with ploughs which made furrows 40 or 50 feet high]. 

 To the north and N.E. we had the Knoll, and beyond it a clear 

 open view over the ice of the Ross Sea. And to the south we 

 looked along the path we had come along the slopes of Terror, 

 stretching away towards the Bluff, while on our right these slopes 

 climbed up to the summit of Mt. Terror, which was plainly visi- 

 ble against the sky. 



We saw that Ross Sea was completely frozen over. No open 

 leads were to be seen, but much of the ice appeared to be young 

 and thin, with little snow on it. These and the following notes 

 on the ice of Ross Sea were kept by Bowers. 



I began the use of my eiderdown bag to-day inside the rein- 

 deer bag with the fur outside, and after this made no change 

 till the day we reached Cape Evans again. 



Sunday, July 16, 1911. To-day looking over Ross Sea we 

 saw a cloud of frost smoke drifting eastward along the Cape 

 Crozier cliffs, evidently from an open lead along the coast. 

 Otherwise the sea was covered by an unbroken sheet of ice. 



The temp, varied to-day between - 20-8 and - 28-5, and we 

 again had the south-westerly breeze of force 3 to 5 coming 

 down our snow slope from Mt. Terror. The weather was clear 

 in the morning, but became hazy with cirro-stratus and fog soon 

 after noon from the south. 



We worked at the stone hut all the daylight and as long 

 as we could see by the waning moonlight, and while Cherry 



