IN WINTER QUARTERS WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT 249 



" Simpson is writing up weather for S. P. T. ; while, I 

 believe, Dr. Bill has finished the c hot-stuff' sketches of 

 geology, etc., for my S. P. T. article. He has copied most of 

 them from my rough sketches, photos, or specimens. Cherry 

 is flapping away at S. P. T. on the typewriter and chortling 

 muchly. 



" Teddy Evans is plotting a graticule for the southern 

 survey, while Ponting has just perpetuated the c Teamsters ' 

 in the stable where Titus entertained Meares to tea. Birdie 

 Bowers is writing reams for his lecture on sledge-foods — guess 

 it will make a book ! The * Owner ' is reading in his cubicle 

 as usual." 



On the 23rd Nelson and I started off for his biological 

 station about a mile to the south on the sea ice. I carried 

 a plane-table, for I wanted to plot the four islands off 

 the Cape. It was a fine clear morning, with tints of yellow, 

 pale grey-blue, and deep blue enriching the sky. Nelson had 

 a special sledge equipped with a winding drum and various 

 boxes of " gadgets," as he called his instruments. With this 

 apparatus he was surveying the depth of the sound, and found 

 that it varied very abruptly from place to place. Next day we 

 went off again, and I obtained further angles from different 

 stations, being unable to find the flag at east base. Finally, 

 I found it beaten flat by the blizzards, the i^-inch thick 

 standard of solid male bamboo being snapped to splinters. 



On Queen's birthday Captain Scott informed me that 

 he was afraid I should be able to do very little science on the 

 southern trip. " You would only be able to go up the Beard- 

 more and down again, so your time would practically be 

 wasted." So that he decided that I should go west to Granite 

 Harbour, at which I was very pleased, though it was rather 

 rough on Debenham, who was to have had charge of a party 

 in that region. Dr. Bill pointed out that Debenham and I 

 were fully occupied with different aspects of geology, so that 

 there was room for both of us, and Scott arranged that I was 

 to take Gran and Forde as the other members of the party. 



My report of the western journey was approaching com- 

 pletion, and I devoted some time to making a portfolio out of 

 purely local ingredients. From the rubbish heap I got me a 

 Venesta box, built of tough 3-ply wood. I brought this 

 into the hut, and with much labour pulled off the galvanized 



