BITING WIND 



that there was an appreciable difference in the tempera- 

 ture between midnight and the afternoon. This differ- 

 ence in our case was further accentuated by the cold 

 nocturnal wind from the high plateau to our west. 

 This wind was of the nature of a land breeze on a 

 large scale. 



There were here two sets of sastrugi, the principal 

 set parallel to the plateau wind and trending here from 

 nearly north-west to south-east; the other set, caused 

 by the blizzard winds, trended from south to north. 

 We were now getting very short of biscuits, and as 

 a consequence were seized with food obsessions, being 

 imable to talk about anything but cereal foods, chiefly 

 cakes of various kinds and fruits. Whenever we halted 

 for a short rest we could discuss nothing but the different 

 dishes with which we had been regaled in our former 

 lifetime at various famous restaurants and hotels. 



The plateau wind blew keenly and strongly all day 

 on November 29. As we advanced further to the 

 north the ice-surface became more and more undulatory, 

 rising against us in great waves like waves of the sea. 

 Evidently these waves were due to the forward move- 

 ment, and consequent pressure of the Drykalski Glacier. 

 We had a fine view from the top of one of these ridges 

 over the surface of the Drygalski Glacier to the edge 

 of the inland plateau. Far inland, perhaps forty or 

 fifty miles away, we could see the great neve fields, 

 which fed the Drygalski Glacier, descending in con- 

 spicuous ice falls, and beyond these loomed dim moun- 

 tains. At the end of this day we hardly knew whether we 

 were on the edge of the sea ice or on the thin edge of 

 the Drygalski Glacier. Probably, I think, we were on very 

 old sea ice, perhaps representing the accumulations of 

 several successive seasons. 



It fell calm at about 9 p.m., but just before midnight, 



133 



