CLIMATOLOGY 



depot) has already been referred to (see page 154). 

 As regards snowfall in Adelie Land, the "Home of the 

 Blizzard," Mawson describes his experiences in the 

 following words :''... we led a strenuous existence 

 at winter quarters buffeting with a sea of drifting 

 snow w^hich poured fluid-thick over the landscape. For 

 months the drifting snow never ceased, and intervals of 

 many days together passed when it was impossible to 

 see one's hand held at arm's length. Such weather 

 lasted almost nine months of the year." 



Antarctic Circulation 



There is much to be learned about the local circula- 

 tion on the continent, but several fairly well established 

 facts stand out. In the first place there is no doubt 

 that in the Ross Sea and the Weddell Sea and almost 

 everywhere where ships have cruised along the coast 

 for any lengthy period, the dominant winds are from 

 the southeast. In the southern hemisphere this is pre- 

 cisely the circulation required if w^e assume that an 

 anticyclone covers most of Antarctica, Secondly, the 

 upper winds are very different in direction. Thus the 

 steam of Erebus (fifteen thousand feet) is blown 

 chiefly from the west and southwest, while the upper 

 clouds move from northwest or wTst. This is almost 

 exactly the opposite of the surface winds at Cape 

 Evans, which were from the east or southeast. So also 

 Barkow (on Filchner's expedition) sent up sounding 

 balloons from Vahsel Bay (78° S.) and found east 

 winds up to about twenty thousand feet, when the wind 

 shifted sharply to south and southwest. This appears 



191 



