IN WINTER QUARTERS WITH CAPTAIN SCOTT 307 



it's certain to blizz ; " and it worked as well as most weather 

 rules. However, even when this standby failed, Crean was 

 always consoling. At last the other seamen got nettled. 

 " Go on, sir ! he's only kidding ; he wants your long sea- 

 boots when you return ! " It was " cupboard love," I 

 fear ! 



On Thursday (2 1st) I believe the wind was blowing seventy 

 miles per hour when I reached the screen. The temperature 

 was pretty high ( — 7 ), but a wind that nearly blew me away 

 soon robbed one of one's bodily heat. My fingers took about 

 ten minutes to " come back," and only by degrees lost their 

 dead feeling, though they did not reach the dead-white colour 

 of bad frostbites. 



The early morning sun was throwing fine earth shadows, 

 which moved round quite rapidly. Thus on the 24th, at 

 8 a.m., Erebus cast a shadow right over the western moun- 

 tains, while at 9 a.m. the shadow could be seen to the south- 

 west of Erebus itself. 



Debenham had been doing long-distance geology ! He 

 fixed up a telescope and trained it on the south slope of the 

 crater of Erebus. He could see hundreds of snow structures 

 on the side, each representing the vent of a " fumarole " from 

 which steam was issuing. This side of Erebus must resemble 

 a gigantic pepper-box ! 



Inside the hut Day was doing some ingenious turning. 

 His lathe was certainly unique ! Many of the hardwood 

 rollers for the motor sledges needed renewal. So he attached 

 a block of hardwood to the flywheel shaft of the oil-engine, 

 and he sat on the floor and, using a box as a tool-rest, he 

 turned out rollers quite successfully, if not very rapidly. 



The morning of the 24th was quite clear, so I got my 

 camera into working order, only to find the sky clouding over 

 for a blizzard so soon as 1 ventured out, about noon. Ponting 

 was lost for about two hours in the thick fog in the evening. 

 We fired off guns, and it looked as if Atkinson's mishap was 

 to be repeated. However, luckily he had a compass, and so 

 got back to the hut quite safely in the end. 



The weather was hopeless, and the coast survey party very 

 sensibly returned to await better conditions. The following 

 scurrilous rhyme pinned to Gran's diary affected them not a 

 whit : — 



