THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



again, taking five weeks' provisions for three men, in 

 order to proceed up the Ferrar Glacier, and later to try 

 to effect a junction with the Northern Party. 



Only five men — Murray, Joyce, Day, Marston and 

 Roberts — were now at the winter quarters. The heat 

 of the Antarctic summer being at its height, the snow- 

 drifts were melting rapidly, and the trickling of running 

 water was everywhere to be heard. A large drift 

 remained on the hill behind the hut, leading up to 

 Mawson's anemometer. On December 1 it was melting 

 in several little trickles, and next day it was found that 

 one of these had got under the hut and made a pool about 

 a foot in depth at the lower end. Many valuable things 

 were stored under the hut, and the only opening was 

 occupied by the pool of water. A hole had to be 

 made at one side of the house, where the ground was 

 higher, and into this Joyce crawled and spent some 

 hours wriggling about in a space hardly more than one 

 foot in height, rescuing valuable boxes of printing 

 material and printed matter. 



In the succeeding days the men at the hut had an 

 illustration of the contrasts which the Antarctic climate 

 presents. The heat of the sun melted the snow, and 

 indeed made the weather oppressively warm, yet the 

 water which ran below the house where the sunshine 

 could not penetrate and the air temperature never rose 

 above 32° Fahr., froze at night and never thawed again, 

 so that the water each day added a layer to the accu- 

 mulation beneath the hut, till it reached nearly up to the 

 floor. 



After the final departure of the Western Party on 

 December 9, life at the winter quarters was uneventful 

 until the arrival of the Nimrod. The members of the 

 expedition remaining at Cape Royds were busy collecting 



38 



