328 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [July 
for the spring. Under these conditions officers and men 
unanimously supported the decision to go south. 
Nelson at the end of June had started some lectures 
upon heredity. These proved to be of great interest 
and led to several discussions amongst the men and 
officers. They were so popular that they had to be 
continued for three weeks. The weather in June as a 
whole was immeasurably worse than it had been in any 
previous season. Comparison of the records will show 
this in figures, both as regards wind and snow, though 
not in actual lowness of temperature. Our hut was 
becoming gradually snowed in. After these blizzards in 
the dark it was almost an impossibib'ty to walk far in 
the camp because of the huge drifts. Pyaree started 
giving some trouble with her capped knee on her near 
fore-leg. This continued for some time and she was 
unable to get exercise and lost condition. The ice, which 
had been fairly permanent again, blew out in a large 
bight to the south of the Cape. In the afternoon now 
we occasionally saw some colour in the northern sky, a 
presage of the light that we were to have. One never 
appreciates fully the blessing of an amount of light until 
one has been through a good deal of darkness. This time 
also we started bagging off the rations for the future 
sledging season. Owing to the probable length of our 
search these were of considerable bulk. 
On July the 1 6th we had probably the most beautiful 
day of the year. The whole northern sky was filled with 
opalescent clouds, and owing to some white ice instead of 
the black water in the North Bay, the increase of light 
