THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



violence must occasionally blow in these quarters, 

 and from the direction of the sastrugi during our last 

 few days' march it was clear that the dominant direc- 

 tion of the blizzard would be exactly in our teeth. The 

 prospect, therefore, of reaching our depot in the speci- 

 fied time did not appear bright. Providentially we 

 had most beautiful and glorious weather for our start 

 on January 17. It remained fine for the whole day, 

 and we were greatly favoured by a hght wind which now 

 blew from between north-west and west-north-west — 

 a perfectly fair wind for our journey. In fact the 

 wind changed direction with us. It had helped us by 

 blowing from the south-east, just before we reached 

 the Magnetic Pole, and now it was blowing in the oppo- 

 site direction, helping us home. That day, in spite of the 

 late start, we sledged sixteen miles. 



On January 18 the weather again was fine, and 

 we had a hard day's sledging. Unfortunately Mawson's 

 left leg became very lame and pained him a good 

 deal. There was a strong radiant in the clouds towards 

 the north-west, and we were a little apprehensive of 

 the wind in consequence. Our run for the day was 

 sixteen miles two hundred yards. This was the end of 

 my week's cooking, and we were able to indulge that 

 night in a fairly abundant hoosh, also in very milky and 

 sweet cocoa, and Mackay admitted that he actually felt 

 moderately full after it for the first time since we had 

 left the Drygalski Depot. 



The following day, January 19, we boiled the hypso- 

 meter at our camp, and found the level to be about 

 7350 ft. above the sea. The boiling-point was 196.75° 

 Fahr. There was a cold fresh wind blowing from the 

 south-east, a head wind for us, the temperature at the time 

 being minus 11° Fahr. There were still low cumulus 

 clouds to the north of us. The wind freshened in the 



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