470 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
It is only necessary to study this table for a few 
minutes to realise the conditions which had to be faced, 
and it explains why the fortunes of the sledging parties 
were affected so largely by the weather. 
With regard to the extent of the country subjected 
to blizzards we cannot of course be very precise. Judging 
from Captain Amundsen's report they did not occur at 
Framheim, nor on the route he took to the Pole. Very 
high winds were occasionally experienced at Cape Adare, 
but they were in no way connected with our blizzards ; 
as a rule when a blizzard was blowing at Cape Evans 
there was only a light southerly wind at Cape Adare. 
We know that typical blizzards were encountered at all 
points of Captain Scott's route as far as the Beardmore 
Glacier. Whether the winds met with on the Plateau 
were connected with blizzards on the Barrier cannot be 
decided until a more thorough study has been made of 
the meteorological records kept by the different sledging 
parties. From the data at present available there appears 
no doubt that blizzards were confined almost entirely 
to the western half of the Ross Barrier. 
The cause of the blizzards, and why they occur only 
over the western half of the Barrier, are questions which 
cannot at present be answered with any certainty. It 
appears, however, that the chief factors are the following : 
The air over the Barrier cools down much more than the 
air over the Ross Sea, and in consequence there is a region 
of relatively low pressure over the sea. Into this region 
the air from the Barrier tends to move, but owing to the 
large deflecting force of the earth's rotation so near to 
