COMPARATIVE TEMPERATURES 15 



The table of temperatures given below is for our winter quarters at Cape Royds, 

 for the Discovery winter quarters at Hut Point, and Borchgrevink's winter quarters 

 at Cape Adare. Cape Royds was badly situated for obtaining accurate records of 

 Antarctic temperatures on account of its close proximity to open water. For some 

 reason which we were unable to determine there was a strip of ojjen water in the 

 middle of McMurdo Sound late into the winter, and it persisted through September 

 and October into the summer. At times, especially after blizzards, this open 

 water would extend close up to Cape Royds, and would, of course, raise the 

 temperatures at those seasons of the year, as the surface temperature of the water 

 was, of course, not below 28° Fahr., and therefore far above that of the adjacent 

 coast, which was below zero from April to September inclusive. The same cause no 

 doubt contributed to make the snowfall at Cape Royds abnormally high for that 

 latitude. 



.Cape Adare i839L3t.7i-S C E Borchgrevink . 

 '^Cape Royds 1908. Lat 77°3ZS.. £ h ShacMeton. 

 '^ Discovery Hut Pf 1903 Lat miS. R F Scott. 



Fig. 3. TEMPERATURE CURVES 



These curves have been constructed from the figures given by Dr. H. R. Mill in 



his article on the Polar Regions in the " Encyclopiedia Britannica," vol. 21. 



These Tables, shown as curves, suggest the following interesting results : 

 Hut Point, although only about 24 miles southerly from Cape Royds, is much 

 colder than the latter in early winter, when the former is some 25 miles distant from 

 open water, whereas the latter is seldom more than about 10 miles from it, and 

 frequently after blizzards within a mile of it. In August it will be seen that the 

 curves for Hut Point and Cape Royds nearly touch one another. By this time, and 

 for some little time previous, the whole of McMurdo Sound, with the exception 

 perhaps of a very narrow strip near the centre, appeared to be frozen over. In 

 September the ice began to break away from McMurdo Sound, exposing a relatively 

 warm sea surface to within a mile of our winter quarters ; and it will be noticed that 

 the temperatures at Cape Royds at once rose considerably above those of Hut Point. 

 By November and early December, at which time a large proportion of McMurdo 

 Sound is ice-free, the temperatures again approached one another nearly. The fact 

 must be borne in mind that these figures are for different years, the Discovery for 



