I9 o2] A FASCINATING STUDY 239 



1 The snow has drifted and hardened against the side of 

 the magnetic hut, forming a coating from three inches thick at 

 the bottom to about one and a half inch at the top. For 

 some reason, possibly change of temperature, the inner surface 

 has been severed from the side of the hut, and the sheet has 

 gradually bent back until it described a complete semicircle. 

 A similar sheet curled back from the ship's stern shows her 

 name clearly impressed on its surface.' 



Around the cape the gale had produced high under-cut 

 snow-waves or sastrugi, whose thin overhanging edges would 

 reverberate with a deep note when struck with a ski pole. 

 Again from the summit of each perpendicular ice-face there 

 were now single, double, and even triple cornices hanging in 

 graceful festoons, actually formed by the adhesion of the 

 whirling snow particles, but appearing to be formed by the 

 overflow of the white sheet on the slopes above. This ever- 

 changing condition of the snow was to many of us a fascinating 

 study ; it was not only that it lent to our walks a delightful 

 variety, but we realised that it had a highly practical bearing 

 on our sledge travelling. From start to finish of our journeys 

 we must haul our sledges over this fickle substance, and 

 according as its surface was hard or soft, sticky or clean, waved 

 or smooth, so must our progress be measured. Those who 

 have only seen snow under the soft, flaky guise which it 

 assumes in a temperate climate must find it difficult to ap- 

 preciate its infinite variety and bewildering changes under 

 more rigorous conditions, which even the sledge traveller, 

 whilst he is forced to appreciate, finds it impossible wholly to 

 explain. 



' May 12. — Fine, calm day; quite pleasant to be out in 

 the morning. In the afternoon the temperature fell to — 37 ; 

 as it fell the calm stillness on deck was interrupted by the 

 continuous crackling of the contracting rigging, a succession 

 of sharp, clear reports like muffled rifle-shots. In such calm 

 weather, too, there are similar but intermittent reports at the 

 tide-crack ; as the water rises or falls with the tide the ice at 

 the edge appears to hang for several minutes and then to break 



