232 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[April 
before I was haled round to observe in detail the trans- 
formation which had taken place during my absence, 
and in which a very proper pride was taken by those 
who had wrought it. 
Simpson's Corner was the first visited. Here the eye 
travelled over numerous shelves laden with a profusion of 
self-recording instruments, electric batteries and switch- 
boards, whilst the ear caught the ticking of many clocks, 
the gentle whirr of a motor and occasionally the trembling 
note of an electric bell. But such sights and sounds 
conveyed only an impression of the delicate methodical 
means by which the daily and hourly variations of our 
weather conditions were being recorded — a mere glimpse 
of the intricate arrangements of a first-class meteorological 
station — the one and only station of that order which has 
been established in Polar regions. It took me days and 
even months to realise fully the aims of our meteorologist 
and the scientific accuracy with which he was achieving 
them. When I did so to an adequate extent I wrote 
some description of his work which will be found in the 
following pages of this volume.* The first impression 
which I am here describing was more confused ; 
I appreciated only that by going to ' Simpson's Corner \ 
one could ascertain at a glance how hard the wind was 
blowing and had been blowing, how the barometer was 
varying, to what degree of cold the thermometer had 
descended ; if one were still more inquisitive he could 
further inform himself as to the electrical tension of the 
atmosphere and other matters of like import. That such 
* Sec Chapter X. 
