EREBUS IN ERUPTION 



undercut on the south-east side, and were frequently a 

 foot to eighteen inches in height. It was no easy matter 

 to direct the sledge across the strong wind then blowing, 

 although we had two men pulling and two others guiding 

 the sledge, and we ascended about half a mile to the north 

 of Horseshoe Bay in what was, for a long time, 

 totally unfamiliar country, and through a series of 

 moraines which had not yet been explored. I was, un- 

 fortunately, of no use in the pulling, being only 

 just able to get along myself, and we were all ex- 

 tremely glad to get the sledge to the Back Door Bay 

 end of Blue Lake, where it was left till the next day. We 

 reached the hut and started on a course of feeding and 

 recuperating, having been five days out." 



Mount Erebus was noticed to be in eruption when 

 the party was maching back to the hut on November 27. 

 Huge diverging columns of steam were rising from the 

 crater, and behind could be seen curious clouds of feathery 

 cirrus. The temperature during the blizzard had not 

 fallen below 12° Fahr., and been above 20° Fahr. during 

 most of the time, so that the frost-bites sustained by the 

 men must have been due mainly to lowered vitality, 

 caused by the cramped situation and the lack of hot 

 food. 



The experience had been rather a severe one, but the 

 men were none the worse for it after a day or two at 

 the winter quarters, and they commenced at once to make 

 preparations for the western journey. I had left 

 instructions that on December 1 Armytage, Priestley and 

 Brocklehurst should start for Butter Point with 600 

 lb. of stores in order to lay a depot for the Northern 

 Party which might be expected to reach that point 

 on its journey back from the Magnetic Pole. Then 

 the three men were to secure what stores they required 



35 



