226 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



Wilson, Bowers, Taylor, Ponting, Gran, and Meares were 

 non-smokers, and Wilson, Bowers, Taylor, and Simpson were 

 teetotalers, though several of the others swore off alcohol 

 except on high days. 



At noon the northern and western sky was very beautiful, 

 and I made an effort to record the colours by means of chalks 

 in my diary. The dominant note was yellow shading to 

 lemon-green in the west. Over the western mountains was a 

 rose-pink flush verging into lilac-grey through salmon-red. 

 To the north the band of salmon-red flanking the yellow 

 changed into slate-blue and pale blue overhead. The sun's 

 rays shone gold through clouds over the Barne glacier, 

 which exhibited magnificent purple and blue shadows. 



It is sad to think that Bowers' sailor-like criticism of the 

 magnificent study in reds and yellows was that it reminded 

 him " of a mess of eggs that had carried away," meaning 

 thereby a dish of fried eggs which had been upset. 



Captain Scott instituted an aurora watch on this date. It 

 was desirable to discover if periods of great magnetic disturb- 

 ance (as shown by the magnetometers in the ice grotto) were 

 accompanied by striking displays of aurorae. There were 

 fifteen officers in the hut, so that each man's turn came along 

 about once a fortnight. He was to go out at every hour and 

 sketch the aurora if present, and of course attend to the 

 meteorological instruments, inspect the ponies, keep up the 

 fire, and generally mount guard from 8 p.m. to 8 a.m. A 

 feast of sardines heated on a bunsen burner was promised to 

 the gallant watchman. 



The most imposing objects near the cape were the stranded 

 icebergs. Ponting and I walked across to them in the after- 

 noon. First we reached the Arch Berg just before it fell in 

 and became the Castle Berg, the Arch Berg, in which the major 

 portion of the arch had fallen, leaving only a narrrow elevated 

 strip uniting the two moieties of the berg. There was a 

 magnificent view, looking back at Erebus through this white 



measured first, with the result above recorded. Wilson came next and basely 

 proceeded to constrict " little Mary " to an incredible extent, so that he had 

 apparently five inches less corporation than Evans and myself. Every one else 

 followed suit, and many were the jeers at our expense. However, I got Gran 

 to measure me according to Wilson's method, and dropped to 30J with 

 ease ! 



