NEW YEAR'S DAY 



eighth of our rations out in order to form an emergency 

 food-supply in the event of our journey to and from 

 the Magnetic Pole proving longer than we originally 

 anticipated. 



That night, ahout a mile before reaching camp, we 

 sighted to the west of us, much to our surprise, some 

 distinct ice falls. This showed us that the snow desert 

 over which we were travelling had still some kind 

 of creeping movement in it. A skua gull came to visit 

 us this New Year's Eve. He had been following us up 

 for some time in the distance, mistaking us, perhaps, 

 for seals crawling inland to die, as is not infrequently 

 the habit of these animals. We were now about eighty 

 miles inland from the nearest open water. Being 

 disappointed of his high hopes, he left us after 

 that day and we saw him again no more. The run for 

 the day was about ten miles. We felt very much 

 exhausted when we turned into our sleeping-bag that 

 night. 



January 1, 1909 (New Year's Day), was a beautiful 

 calm day with a very light gentle plateau wind, with 

 fairly high temperature. The sky was festooned in the 

 direction of Mount Nansen with delicate wispy cirrus 

 clouds converging in a north-east direction. Later on, 

 towards the evening, it was evident that these cirrus 

 clouds were strongly bent round from south-west in 

 a northerly direction. Possibly this bending with 

 the concave side to the west-north-west was due 

 to the pressure at a high level of the anti-trade wind 

 blowing towards the east-south-east. Mawson took 

 observations for latitude and for magnetic deviation 

 at noon. He made our latitude at noon to be 74° 18'. 

 That night Mawson gave us a grand hoosh and a 

 rich pot of cocoa in celebration of New Year's Day. 



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