HEAVY RELAY WORK 



the glaciated rocky surface. We found a little moss here 

 amongst the crevices in the granite rock. 



October 29 was beautifully line, though a keen and 

 fresh wind, rather unpleasantly cold, was blowing from 

 off the high mountain plateau to our west. It blew 

 from a direction west by south and caused a little low 

 drift in the loose snow on the surface of the sea ice. 

 There was still a great deal of deep, soft snow alternating 

 with hard sastrugi and small patches of consolidated 

 brash ice, so that the sledging was very heavy. 



We were all thoroughly done up at night after com- 

 pleting our four miles of relay work. That evening we 

 discussed the important question of whether it would be 

 possible to eke out our food-supplies with seal meat so 

 as to avoid putting ourselves on half rations, and we all 

 agreed that this should be done. We made up our minds 

 that at the first convenient spot we would make a 

 depot of any articles of equipment, geological specimens, 

 &c., in order to lighten our sledges, and would at the 

 same time, if the spot was suitable, make some ex- 

 periments with seal meat. The chief problem in 

 connection with the latter was how to cook it without 

 the aid of paraffin oil. We could not afford more 

 paraffin for this purpose, as we estimated that even with 

 the utmost care the supply for our Primus, which we 

 used for brewing tea, cocoa and hoosh, ,/ould become 

 exhausted before we could hope to reach the Magnetic 

 Pole, unless some kind of substitute for paraffin could 

 be found. 



The following day, October 30, was full of interest 

 for us, as well as hard work. In the early morning, 

 between 2.30 a.m. and 6.30 a.m., a mild blizzard was 

 blowing. We got under way a little later and camped 

 at about 10.30 a.m. for lunch alongside a very inter- 

 esting rocky point. Mawson got a good set of theodolite 



103 



