226 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [April 



the work which is going on in the various departments, and am 

 endeavouring to do some physical work in connection with the 

 ice and snow which would otherwise be neglected ; but such 

 matters are attended with great difficulty to an untrained 

 observer, and it is only when one comes to make the attempt 

 that one finds that a simple experiment is almost an 

 impossibility; every condition is complicated by outside 

 variable causes.' 



To give an instance of what was evidently meant by this 

 paragraph I may mention that it was suggested in our 

 'Antarctic Manual of Instructions' that a block of ice should 

 be suspended in the sea and its rate of increase in winter and 

 decrease in summer should be measured. Had we attempted 

 to do this, probably we should have arrived at an utterly false 

 conclusion, because in no two places would the result be the 

 same ; in one place, for example, the block would most cer- 

 tainly have disappeared early in the summer, whereas in 

 another it would have been diminished by little throughout that 

 season. This difference was dependent on the movement of 

 the sea-water, but it shows the impossibility of carrying out 

 experiments of this sort, however easily they may be conceived 

 in the quiet of an English study. 



' I find time also to read up Arctic literature, of which I am 

 woefully ignorant ; most unfortunately, our library is deficient 

 in this respect, as owing to the hurry of our departure many 

 important books were omitted. We have Greely, Payer, Nares, 

 Markham, McClintock, McDougall, Scoresby, Nansen's 

 " Greenland," and a few others of less importance ; but, sad to 

 relate, Nordenskjold, Nansen ("Farthest North"), and Peary 

 are absent, and two of these at least would have been amongst 

 our most valuable books of reference. Yesterday I was 

 pleasantly astonished to find that Wilson had some notes on 

 Nansen's "Farthest North," giving extracts of his sledge 

 weights, &c, and these may be of great use in calculating our 

 own weights. 



' The work of the various officers is so distinct, and keeps 

 them so busily employed, that we rarely meet except at meal- 



