552 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



Simpson, in his meteorological report, has little doubt 

 that the temperatures met by the Polar Party were abnor- 

 mal. The records " clearly bring to light the possibility of 

 great cold at an extremely early period in the year within 

 a comparatively few miles of an open sea where the tem- 

 peratures were over 40 degrees higher." "It is quite im- 

 possible to believe that normally there is a difference of 

 nearly 40 degrees in March between McMurdo Sound 

 and the South of the Barrier." The temperatures recorded 

 by other sledge parties in March 1 9 1 2 and those recorded at 

 Cape Evans form additional evidence, in Simpson's opinion, 

 that the temperatures experienced by Scott were not such 

 as might be expected during normal autumn weather. 



Simpson's explanation is based upon the observations 

 made in McMurdo Sound by sending up balloons with 

 self-recording instruments attached. These showed that 

 very rapid radiation takes place from the snow surface in 

 winter, which cools the air in the immediate neighbour- 

 hood : a cold layer of air is thus formed near the ground, 

 which may be many degrees colder than the air above it. It 

 becomes, as it were, colder than it ought to be. This, how- 

 ever, can only happen during an absence of wind: when a 

 wind blows the cold layer is swept away, the air is mixed 

 and the temperature rises. 



The absence of wind from the south noted by Scott was, 

 in Simpson's opinion, the cause of the low temperatures 

 met by Scott : the temperature was reduced ten degrees 

 below normal at Cape Evans, and perhaps twenty degrees 

 where Scott was. 1 



The third question is that of food. It is this point which 

 is most important to future explorers. It is a fact that the 

 Polar Party failed to make their distance because they 

 became weak, and that they became weak although they 

 were eating their full ration or more than their full ration 

 of food, save for a few days when they went short on the 

 way down the Beardmore Glacier. The first man to weaken 



1 A full discussion of these and other Antarctic temperatures is to be found in the 

 scientific reports of the British Antarctic Expedition, 19 10—13, "Meteorology," vol. i. 

 chap, ii., by G. C Simpson. 



