THE AURORA 



certainly not what one might expect on such a place 

 as Ross Island, and both to geologists and biologists 

 was a matter of interest. So far we had not had any 

 dearth of animal life when viewed from the standpoint 

 of the replenishing of our larder, but towards the end 

 of March the seals became less numerous and the appear- 

 ance of one of these was generally followed by its death. 

 Towards the end of the month Erebus became very active, 

 shooting out huge clouds of steam, which rose to the 

 height of 2000 ft. above the crater and were then caught 

 by the upper winds, giving us very definite information 

 as to the trend of the upper air-currents. 



About the same time we began to see the aurora, 

 and night after night, except when the moon was at its 

 full or the sky overcast, the waving mystic lines of 

 light were thrown across the heavens, waxing and 

 waning rapidly, falling into folds and curtains, spread- 

 ing out into great arches and sometimes shooting 

 vertical beams almost to the zenith. Sometimes, indeed 

 often, the aurora hovered over Mount Erebus, attracted 

 no doubt by this great isolated mass of rock, sometimes 

 descending to the lower slopes and always giving us 

 an interest that never failed. When the familiar 

 cry of " aurora " was uttered by some one who had 

 been outside, most of us rushed out to see what new 

 phase this mysterious phenomenon would take, and we 

 were indeed fortunate in the frequency and brilliancy of 

 the displays. Mawson, as physicist, obtained a number 

 of interesting notes which throw new light on this diffi- 

 cult subject. 



At the end of March there was still open water in 

 the bay and we observed a Killer whale chasing a seal. 

 About this time we commenced digging a trench in 

 Clear Lake and obtained, when we came to water, 

 samples of the bottom mud and fungus, which were 



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