344 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [November 
in temperature which ranged from minus 20 to the lowest 
of minus 29. In the daytime, when the sun had reached 
its full height, the temperature would rise almost to zero. 
On the night of the 7th and morning of the 8th of 
November we made the old Bluff Depot in 79° South and 
re-built it, placing a new flag of black bunting on the pole. 
Here we left two boxes of dog biscuit for the dogs returning 
on their journey back from the south. The surface again 
continued good, and never in any previous experience had 
it been so hard and good as far south as this. 
On the night of the 8th and 9th we continued over 
this same good surface, before a slight north-easterly 
wind and a cold day. The dogs had now again begun 
to fail. They seemed to lack enthusiasm and spirit ; 
I believe that in their case they had had too much work 
upon the Barrier and were spiritless and easily depressed 
by the lack of anything to see. In the previous year we 
had had certain ' cuts ' of land for the Bluff Depot and 
Corner Camp. It was quite easy to see from these that 
both camps had changed their positions owing to the 
gradual movement of the Barrier, year by year. Approxi- 
mately, and j udging very roughly, the movement in 
either case had been about half a mile for the year. 
On the night of the 9th and loth we came again to 
a curious phenomenon of the Barrier surface. As the 
mules proceeded ahead of us loud crackling roars could be 
heard from time to time. These were caused by a sub- 
sidence of the surface over a large area, as an animal or 
man trod upon it. The depth of the subsidence was only 
a fraction of an inch, but the resulting report was exceed- 
