4© CHALLENGER 



clouded over and this immediately froze and had to be cleared off with the 

 point of a pencil. Taking angles up wind was very trying as it made my eyes 

 water and this, of course, froze too. The temperature was — 17 degrees all 

 day. I got back to camp just about ready to commit murder at the slightest 

 provocation. 



As the snow house was not completed, Dennis and I had to plot and 'ink-in' 

 in the tent and this was about the most trying thing I have done for a long 

 time. Only one could work at a time and he had to sit on the ration box with 

 the plane table on his knees and tilt it downwards away from him to get 

 enough light to see by. Our eyes ached like hell by the time we finished and 

 we both vowed we would not try it again. Altogether somewhat of a grim day. 



6th January. It was snowing to start with so we finished building the snow 

 house, and set off on our coastlining as soon as it cleared up. We used the 

 snow house in the evening for plotting and inking-in and it was simply 

 marvellous compared to a tent. The plotting table consisted of a large snow 

 block laid on top of a beaten down pile of snow in the middle and the light 

 was supplied by two candles lashed to broom handles and stuck in the snow 

 either side of the table. The light given was truly amazing and made work 

 almost a pleasure! The primus stove kept it fairly warm and we slung the 

 bottle of ink on a lanyard to thaw it and keep it thawed. Even so we had to 

 hold the ink over the primus flame every minute or so as the ink froze on 

 the pen while inking-in. We finished the great work by about 1830, and on 

 going out noticed that the spring was quoring up almost into the igloo 

 although this was built on the side of a small hill. After supper I went out to 

 do the usual chores of filling up pots and pans and so on and went up and 

 had a look at the igloo and found the water had risen considerably and also 

 that it had broken out at the back and was threatening the tents. I tumbled 

 the crowd out and we cut a channel to drain the igloo and cut through into 

 a small river which welled up very strongly. I decided to shift camp and we 

 made a quick job of it, shifting it about 50 yards away in lee of a small hill. 

 The whole camp was shifted and settled down again with all primus stoves 

 roaring in three-quarters of an hour. The lads were very cheerful about it 

 and picked the tents up bodily and carried them to the new site, singing 

 some Salvation Army song that is usually sung when the latter carry large 

 banners about. I did not feel too happy about the snow house but, as we had 

 tapped the stream below it, it did not look as though anything would occur. 



7th January. It was blowing hard and continued to do so until about 1 1 30 

 when the wind appeared to ease somewhat. We all had a quick 'mug up' and 

 got away by 1 2 30. It was soon apparent, however, that it was only a temporary 

 ease up, as by the time 1 had cleared the land it was blowing hard again. 

 Standing up in the komatik with the wind behind me it was strong enough to 

 blow the komatik along and keep the bridle and traces slack over hard wind- 

 blown patches of ice. By the time we had got to the east end of Kruger 

 Island, I could see that we were in for a buster as the snow was being blown 

 off the tops of the hills in Nain Bay. I rounded the point and started to come 

 back the other side of the island, as I thought we might have a lee of sorts. 



