194 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD ’ 
““C”’ (Clarence), which were in North and South Bays ree 
spectively, were erected by Bowers, who thought, rightly, 
that they would form an object to which men could ouide 
their walks, and that at the same time the observations of 
maximum, minimum and present temperatures would be 
a useful check to the meteorologist when he came to com= 
pare them with those taken at the hut. As a matter of 
fact the book in which we used to enter these observa- 
tions shows that the air temperatures out on the sea-ice 
vary considerably from those on the cape, and that the 
temperatures several hundred feet up on the slopes of 
‘a 
Erebus are often several degrees higher than those i 
at sea-level. I believe that much of the weather in this 
part of the world is an intensely local affair, and these 
screens produced useful data. | 
Wilson and Bowers would go up the Ramp when it al 
blowing and drifting fairly hard, so that although the rocks” 
and landmarks immediately round them were visible, all 
beyond was blotted out. It is quite possible to walk thus” 
among landmarks which you know at a time when it is 
most unwise to go out on to the sea-ice where there are no 
fixed points to act as a guide. 
It was Wilson’s pleasant conceit to keep his balaclava 
rolled up, so that his face was bare, on such occasions, 
being somewhat proud of the fact thatihe had not, as yet, 
been frost-bitten. Imagine our joy when he entered the hut 
one cold windy evening with two white spots on his cheeks” 
which he vainly tried to hide behind his dogskin mitts. — 
The ponies’ lunch came at mid-day, when they were 
given snow to drink and compressed fodder with oats or 
oil-cake on alternate days to eat, the proportion of which 
was arranged according to the work they were able to do 
in the present, or expected to do in the future. Our own 
lunch was soon after one, and a few minutes before that. 
time Hooper’ s voice would be heard: “‘ Table please, Mr. 
Debenham,” and all writing materials, charts, instruments” 
and books ‘would have to. be removed. On ‘Sunday, this 
table displayed a dark blue cloth, but for meals and at all 
other times it was covered with white oilcloth. 
