THE FIRST WINTER 197 
Day (December 21) at the South Pole the sun circles round 
for twenty-four hours without changing his altitude for one 
minute of a degree, but elsewhere he is always rising in the 
sky until mid-day in the north and falling from that time 
until midnight in the south. 
Often, far too often, it was blizzing, and it was im- 
possible to go out except into the camp to take the ob- 
servations, to care for the dogs, to get ice for water or to 
bring in stores. Even a short excursion of a few yards had 
to be made with great care under such circumstances, and 
certainly no one went outside more than was necessary, if 
only because one was obliged to dig the accumulated drift 
from the door before it was possible to proceed. Blizzard 
or no blizzard, most men were back in the hut soon after 
four, and from then until 6.30 worked steadily at their 
jobs. As supper time approached some kindly-disposed 
person would sit down and play on the Broadwood pianola 
which was one of our blessings, and so it was that we came 
to supper with good tempers as well as keen appetites. 
Soup, in which the flavour of tomatoes occurred all too 
frequently, followed by seal or penguin, and twice a week 
by New Zealand mutton, with tinned vegetables, formed 
the basis of our meal, and this was followed by a pudding. 
We drank lime juice and water which sometimes included 
a suspicious penguin flavour derived from the ice slopes 
from which our water was quarried. 
During our passage out to New Zealand in the ship (or 
as Meares always insisted on calling her, the steamer) it 
was our pleasant custom to have a glass of port ora liqueur 
after dinner. Alas, we had this no longer: after leaving 
New Zealand space allowed of little wine being carried 
in the Terra Nova, even if the general medical opinion of 
the expedition had not considered its presence undesirable. 
We had, however, a few cases for special festivals, as well 
as some excellent liqueur brandy which was carried as 
medical comforts on our sledge journeys. Any officer who 
allowed the distribution of this luxury on nearing the end 
of a journey became extremely popular. 
Lack of wine probably led to the suspension of a custom 
