THE GREAT LONELINESS 



"Alone, alone; all, all alone, alone on a wide, wide 

 sea," and then when the mazy clouds spring silently 

 from either hand and drift quickly across our zenith, 

 not followed by any wind, it seems uncanny. There 

 comes a puff of wind from the north, another from the 

 south, and anon one from the east or west, seeming to 

 obey no law, acting on erratic impulses. It is as though 

 we were truly at the world's end, and were bursting in 

 on the birthplace of the clouds and the nesting home 

 of the four winds, and one has a feeling that we mortals 

 are being watched with a jealous eye by the forces of 

 nature. To add to these weird impressions that seem 

 to grow on one in the apparently limitless waste, the 

 sun to-night was surrounded by mock suns and in the 

 zenith was a bow, turning away from the great vertical 

 circle around the sun. These circles and bows were 

 the colour of the rainbow. We are all fairly tired to- 

 night, and Wild is not feeling very fit, but a night's 

 rest will do him good. The ponies are all fit except 

 poor old Chinaman, and he must go to-morrow. He 

 cannot keep up with the others, and the bad surface has 

 played him out. The temperature is zero Fahr. 



November 21. — Started at 7.30 a.m. as we had to 

 come to camp early to-night, and we wanted to get a 

 good latitude observation at noon. Although we got 

 away early, however, all morning we were steering 

 through thick weather with driving ice-crystals, and 

 at noon there was no chance of getting the sun for lati- 

 tude. We came to camp at 12.30 p.m., just as the weather 

 cleared a little, and we could see land on our right 

 hand, but only the base of the mountains, so could 

 not identify them. Chinaman came up at last, struggling 

 painfully along, so when we made our depot this evening 

 he was shot. We will use the meat to keep us out 

 longer, and will save on our dried stores. The tempera- 



285 



