IN WINTER QUARTERS WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT 279 



phone wires. Inside, in one corner, was the telephone box, 

 well crusted with ice, through which he could hear the ticking 

 of the sidereal clock in the hut. There was also a delicate 

 apparatus from the Cavendish Laboratory at Cambridge to 

 register the "ionization of the air," and a microscope and 

 micro-camera. On an ice bench was the chief instrument, a 

 stand carrying four short pendulums. Each was mounted on 

 an agate knife-edge, and was surmounted by a mirror. The 

 time of swing of these pendulums was very delicately measured, 

 and gave the pull of gravity at Cape Evans, thus leading to an 

 estimate of the shape of the earth. 



This account is somewhat brief, and this is explained in 

 my journal as follows : " This description has been greatly 

 interrupted by the irruptions and incursions of the Anti- 

 Feminist, who will pour out his antiquated views on l Woman's 

 Mission in Life ' into the unwilling ears of Debenham and 

 myself. His only semi-sane argument is, that as all laws rest 

 on an appeal to force, and as men are physically stronger than 

 women, therefore men must protect, must rule, and (apparently) 

 therefore must control and administer all the laws ! The rest 

 is pure selfishness." 



Tuesday (nth July) was Jam Day, as I write with glee. 

 There are two articles of diet to which I am not particularly 

 addicted, and they are cheese and sardines. We got cheese 

 solus for four lunches a week, and sardines every night watch. 

 So that I used to reckon by Tuesdays ! I proceeded to 

 translate German glaciology as usual, but unfortunately 

 Debenham and Nelson started a cag on the merits or 

 demerits of Australian tennis champions ; and when that was 

 over we had another as to which was the worst storm in the 

 Terra Nova. Nelson said it took place off Cape Town, Wright 

 said off St. Paul, Atkinson said south of New Zealand. All 

 this talk occurred in our cubicle, and as Debenham and I had 

 not experienced the two earlier excitements, we were not 

 violently interested, and tried to push the debaters out, with 

 complete lack of success. I did very little German ! 



On the 1 2th of July we had a record blizzard. For over 

 twelve hours its mean velocity was above forty miles per hour, 

 and it rose above seventy miles per hour at 9.15, 11.15, and 

 5.30. At 9.15 p.m. it fairly boomed over the hut. Luckily 

 the hut is so surrounded by "lean-tos" and great snow-drifts 



