THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



supply for about two days in one of our oil-cans. The 

 following is a list of the provisions: 



Powdered cheese (enough for two meals). 



Tea (for four meals) . 



Twenty-five lumps of sugar. 



Hoosh for one meal. 



Chocolate (for one and a half meals). 



Twelve biscuits. 



We also left an empty biscuit tin into which we 

 crammed our ski-boots, and our three ice-axes, using one 

 of them stuck upright as a staff for a small blue flag 

 to mark the depot. Mawson took some good bearings 

 with the prismatic compass, and we then proceeded 

 on our way. This depot we called the Larsen Depot, as 

 it was close to one of the southern spurs of Mount 

 Larsen. 



All eyes were now strained, as we advanced with 

 our sledge, to see whether there was still any formidable 

 range of mountains ahead of us barring our path to the 

 plateau. At one time it seemed as though there was 

 a high range in the dim distance, but a careful exam- 

 ination with the field-glasses showed that this ap- 

 pearance was due only to clouds. Our joy and thank- 

 fulness was unbounded when we at last realised that 

 apparently there was now a fairly easy ascent of hard 

 neve and snow on to the plateau. That day we sledged 

 a little over ten miles. During the night there was a 

 very strong radiant in the sky from about south-west 

 to north-east, with a movement of altro-stratus cloud 

 from north-west to south-east. Therefore, probably, 

 this radiant was due to formation of great rolls of 

 cloud curled over by the anti-trade wind as it pressed 

 forward in a south-easterly direction. The rolls of 



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