30 METEOROLOGY 



This remarkable blizzard reached King Edward VII. Land on December 1. The 

 blizzard, with new-falling snow, continued to rage there until the morning of 

 December 7. The same blizzard was experienced by Scott at the foot of the 

 Beardmore Glacier, where it left 2 feet of new-fallen snow, as well as by Taylor 

 and Debenham's party at Granite Harbour to the north of McMurdo Sound ; but 

 Day, on the west side of the Barrier near 82° S., escaped this snowfall 

 altogether. Nevertheless, practically the whole of the Ross Sea region was on this 

 occasion visited by the heavy snowfall. At Granite Harbour it was about 3 feet deep. 



One cannot but think that this remarkable snowfall, preceded by two days 

 of winds blowing in sharp gusts from the north with dense fogs, was derived from 

 moisture which had travelled inland, fiom the Ross Sea and the Southern Ocean beyond, 

 as a surface wind, part of some large surface cyclone system, rather than that it was 

 derived from the downward-diving air of the Antarctic high-level cyclone. 

 Doubtless the fierce insolation to which the rocks and snowfields of the Antarctic 

 Horst are subjected, as summer develops, was responsible for some of the vapour in 

 the air. Amundsen relates (oj). cit. vol. ii. p. 141) that on Christmas Eve, just noi'th 

 of 88° S., the surface of the snow, as the result of having been exposed to powerful 

 sunshine was quite polished, and that near "Dog Depot" in 86° S., as seen on 

 January 3, 1911, some of the snow beacons were found to be quite bent over, through 

 the effect of the sun's heat, and that "great icicles told us clearly enough how 

 powerful the sunshine had been." This interesting observation shows that snow can 

 actually thaw, as already suggested, when exposed to long severe insolation, even 

 when the shade temperature of the air in general, as distinct from the thin film next 

 the snow, probably at no time rises to thaw point. " Dog Depot " is 10,060 feet above 

 sea level, so that the shade temperature at that latitude would probably not rise at 

 all to thaw point. 



Close to the latitude of 84° S. cumulus was observed travelling from N. to S. and 

 at times from N.N.W. to S.S.E., but this drift from the north was quite exceptional. 



Fresh-falling snow Avas recorded at 84° 35' S. on the Beardmore Glacier, on 

 December 14, For the whole of the previous day the surface wind had been N.E., 

 and the cumulus had been drifting from E.N.E. 



This suggests that the moisture which formed this snow was derived from the Ross 

 Sea or the Southern Ocean beyond it. 



S.W. or S.S.W. winds always brought with them clear skies. 



If a great cyclonic wind were to dive at the Temperature Pole, it would 

 surely retain some of its easterly component of movement and be a W.S.W., S.W., or 

 S.S.W. wind. 



J. B. Adams, of Shackleton's expedition, describes the surface at latitude 

 88° 23' S., longitude 162° E., as being formed of hard snow and hard sandy crystal 



drift. 



Summary. The question of snow supply to Antarctica is of course an extremely 



