i9l FISH, FIRE, AND FOSSILS 221 



On May 13 we had a wonderful aurora display about 6 P.M. 

 and this was believed to be the brightest that had been seen 

 at Cape Evans. The greater part of the sky was covered, but 

 the most vivid shafts ran north-east and south-west. Debenham 

 tried with various exposures to photograph the phenomena, but 

 unluckily failed to get any results. We started again our fish 

 trap which was let down by digging a hole through the ice; this 

 was at first successful and we had a fair number of fish. The 

 flesh of these fish was so sweet that they were, in the ordinary 

 way, quite unpleasant eating. Archer, by soaking them first in 

 vinegar and water, made them much more palatable. Keohane 

 and Williamson, after a great deal of trouble, caught some of 

 these same fish by hook and line. 



On May 25 we had some slight excitement. Wright needed 

 a lamp to heat his magnetic hut, and Nelson and he, while experi- 

 menting with one and increasing the pressure in the lamp to give 

 a better flare, unluckily managed to burst it. Immediately the 

 whole end of the table and part of the floor was a mass of flames. 

 With blankets and a fire extinguisher these were soon put out 

 and no harm done. Nelson, whose face was down by the lamp 

 when the explosion occurred, had a very lucky escape. Our 

 fish trap, which had been failing in the number of fish caught 

 each day, was blown out to sea with the ice from the North Bay. 

 This was a serious loss, but we managed with some wire, iron 

 bars, and two hoops to make another but smaller one. About this 

 time some of the geological specimens which had been brought 

 back by the first and second return parties were handed over to 

 Debenham. These had mainly been collected in the scattered 

 moraine under the Cloud-maker. To his surprise and joy several 

 fossils of plants and small marine animals were found in some 

 of these. 



One of the dogs, Vaida, who had been ill since his return, was 

 allowed a certain amount of latitude; he frequently came into 

 the hut and would take up his position there, appreciating the 

 warmth and comfort and strenuously resisting ejection at any 

 time. Altogether he regarded himself as having taken on the 

 duty of a house dog. 



On June I, the ice appearing sound, Demetri and Hooper 

 with a dog team went to Hut Point, doing the journey there and 

 back in the same day. One of the dogs had been lost on our 



