I9II] SLEDGING ROUND ROBERTSON BAY loi 
On June 22 we celebrated Midwinter Day with the 
usual festivities. 
July 10.— The days are already a little lighter, and 
we are making ready our sledging equipment, for on the 
28th of this month I propose making an expedition into 
Robertson Bav for a week to see what sort of surface to 
expect up the coast, the pressure all round our beach 
and Cape Adare being very bad. 
We have seen several Antarctic petrels, and it is 
hard to account for these birds down here in the middle 
of winter, unless there is open water a little north of us. 
July 29.— Priestley, Abbott, and I left the hut 
for our short expedition into Robertson Bay. 
Taking provisions for a fortnight, we left about 8 a.m., 
when it was beginning to get light. The surface was 
appalling, and in spite of our light sledge (400 lbs.) it 
took us three days to reach Duke of York Island, a distance 
of 22 miles by the route we took to avoid the bad pressure. 
The salt-flecked smooth ice, being very sticky, w^as much 
heavier going even than the pressure ice. 
We spent a day at Duke of York Island collecting, 
and started back at daybreak, August 2. During 
the day the weather looked so threatening I made for 
the cliffs just south of Warning Glacier to get some 
shelter in case of a blizzard. We got some heavy squalls 
and drift in the afternoon, which nearly made us camp, 
but keeping on we reached land about 5.30, camping 
between two high pressure ridges under the cliffs. The 
noise of the wind in the bay was terrific, and we were 
thankful to have got some shelter. After supper we 
