METEOROLOGICAL CONDITIONS 319 



a great stroke of luck, as the smoke of that volcano gave us an 

 indication of the direction of the upper air currents, and showed 

 that they blew almost constantly from the west. In this con- 

 nection it will be remembered also that there were some 

 interesting evidences to be gathered from the surface of the 

 snow on the high level plateau of Victoria Land ; here also, as 

 shown by the sastrugi, the wind blows continuously from the 

 west. 



As regards the winds at our winter quarters, the commonest 

 direction was S.E., but although one would wish this to be 

 typical of the whole region, I fear there is much evidence to 

 show that this wind was purely local. It was often possible to 

 see very varying weather conditions simultaneously at different 

 places about the ' Discovery.' For instance, at one time a 

 bank of heavy nimbus cloud hung over Cape Bird ; the western 

 ranges were in calm and sunshine ; clouds of drift were being 

 swept from the slopes of Mount Discovery by a southerly 

 wind ; the wind was S.E. at the ship ; whilst off Cape Armitage 

 and a mile or two to the eastward of our peninsula it was again 

 calm. The same confusion was shown by the snow-waves : as 

 a rule, in the vicinity of the ship they pointed to the S.E. ; out- 

 side White Island they were confused from W.S.W. to S.S.E. ; 

 south of White Island and to the Bluff they were south ; at the 

 depot S.W. ; and off the eastern slopes of Terror again south. 



All this, together with the observations made on sledge 

 journeys, shows such a confused condition of air-currents that 

 it would be impossible to assert that the prevalent wind in our 

 region was S.E. It is true that at the eastern end of the 

 Barrier we experienced east and S.E. winds, but if this is the 

 general direction over the whole Barrier, it is difficult to see 

 where the body of air goes to, unless it turns to the north on 

 arriving at Victoria Land ; it certainly does not go over the 

 mountains. 



The prevalent direction of the wind has naturally an 

 important bearing on the general circulation of the atmo- 

 sphere in the Southern Regions, and it is therefore un- 

 fortunate that we should have been subject to local winds. 



