380 WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



collecting specimens and skua eggs. I was pleased to see signs 

 of intellect in two of the skuas, for my observations of seals, 

 penguins, and skuas left me convinced of their stupidity. 

 However, in one nest the bird had dragged some moss from 

 a patch a foot distant, and in another case some quill feathers 

 were arranged around the nest. All the other birds nested 

 anyhow and anywhere. A gully, where water often trickled 

 down on a specially hot day, was a favoured spot ! 



For lunch we cracked twenty-seven eggs, of which eight 

 were edible. Then we opened the Christmas bag and we 

 found therein a small pudding ready cooked and some 

 caramels and ginger. Forde had rigged up the flap again, 

 and had raised the Irish flag; on his own behalf. He cut out 

 a white harp from a linen specimen bag and sewed it on to 

 a piece of green burberry. The result was patriotic and 

 striking. Gran's sledge flag was a beautiful piece of em- 

 broidery presented by Queen Maud, and contained the 

 Norwegian arms. Debenham's and mine bore the arms of 

 our universities. 



I had carved a spoon out of a piece of bamboo from the 

 broken end of our depot flag, and Debenham used this as 

 a lever to photograph our group. This primitive arrange- 

 ment took a lot of fixing, but he obtained quite a successful 

 picture finally. 



A heavy sea fog rolled up that evening, and most of us 

 suffered from rheumatic pains. As a rule, we never caught 

 cold while sledging, though I remember a touch of influenza 

 on one occasion. This freedom from some of the minor ills 

 of life speaks well for the purity of the air in the Antarctic. 



Debenham's birthday is the 26th of December, and Gran 

 had remembered this fact and carried a packet of cigarettes 

 from Cape Evans as a present to him. 



We walked along the flank of Mount England to explore 

 the New Glacier and to find a track to the Upper Mackay. 

 Numerous couloirs or chimneys grooved the steep face, and 

 Gran and I climbed four hundred feet up one of them. The 

 snow-line was about eight hundred feet up, and below this 

 was a tumbled pile of debris and granite blocks with a little 

 water running between. It was obvious that frost action was 

 now leading to a great deal of erosion ; while at the head 

 of the couloir where the snow lay, less action was taking 



