Chapter tftfteen 



THE POLAR NIGHT 



March 13 we experienced a very fierce blizzard. 

 The hut shook and rocked in spite of our sheltered 

 position, and articles that we had left lying loose outside 

 were scattered far and wide. Even cases weighing from 

 fifty to eighty pounds were shifted from where they had 

 been resting, showing the enormous velocity of the wind. 

 When the gale was over we put everything that was likely 

 to blow away into positions of greater safety. It was 

 on this day also that Murray found living microscopical 

 animals on some fungus that had been thawed out from a 

 lump of ice taken from the bottom of one of the lakes. 

 This was one of the most interesting biological discoveries 

 that had been made in the Antarctic, for the study of 

 these minute creatures occupied our biologist for a great 

 part of his stay in the south, and threw a new light on 

 the capability of life to exist under conditions of extreme 

 cold and in the face of great variations of tempera- 

 ture. We all became vastly interested in the rotifers 

 during our stay, and the work of the biologist in this 

 respect was watched with keen attention. From our 

 point of view there was an element of humour in the 

 endeavours of Murray to slay the little animals he had 

 found. He used to thaw them out from a block of ice, 

 freeze them up again, and repeat this process several 

 times without producing any result as far as the rotifers 

 were concerned. Then he tested them in brine so 

 strongly saline that it would not freeze at a temperature 

 above minus 7° Fahr., and still the animals lived. A good 



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