THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



facing the north-east. We thought this curve was, per- 

 haps, due to the anti-trade wind bending round in a 

 direction following that of the curve in the wisps of 

 cirrus. 



January 11. — We were up about 7 a.m., the tempera- 

 ture at that time being minus 12° Fahr. It was a 

 cold day to-day, and we had a light wind nearly 

 southerly. At first it blew from between south and south- 

 south-east; this gradually freshened at lunch time and 

 veered towards the west. It then returned again more 

 towards the south-south-east. Mawson had a touch of 

 snow-blindness in his right eye. Both he and Mackay 

 suffered much through the skin of their lips peeling off, 

 leaving the raw flesh exposed. Mawson, particularly, 

 experienced great difficulty every morning in getting 

 his mouth opened, as his lips were firmly glued together 

 by congealed blood. 



That day we did eleven miles, the surface being fairly 

 firm, and there being no appreciable general up grade 

 now, but only long-ridged undulations, with sastrugi. We 

 noticed that these sastrugi had now changed direction, 

 and instead of trending from nearly west, or north 

 of west, eastwards, now came more from the south- 

 east directed towards the north-west. This warned 

 us that we might anticipate possibly strong head 

 winds on our return journey, as our course at 

 the time was being directed almost north-west, 

 following from time to time the exact bearing of the 

 horizontal magnetic compass. The compass was now 

 very sluggish, in fact the theodolite compass would 

 scarcely work at all. This pleased us a good deal, 

 and at first we all wished more power to it; then 

 amended the sentiment and wished less power to it. 

 The sky was clear, and Mawson got good magnetic 

 meridian observations by means of his very delicately 



1^6 



