456 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [Novembkr 
off, and the wind is dropping now, but the sky looks very 
lowering and unsettled. 
Last night the sky was so broken that I made certain 
the end of the blow had come. Towards morning the sky 
overhead and far to the north was quite clear. More 
cloud obscured the sun to the south and low heavy banks 
hung over Ross Island. All seemed hopeful, except that 
I noted with misgiving that the mantle on the Bluff was 
beginning to form. Two hours later the whole sky was 
overcast and the blizzard had fully developed. 
This Tuesday evening it remains overcast, but one 
cannot sec that the clouds are travelling fast. The Bluff 
mantle is a wide low bank of stratus not particularly 
windy in appearance ; the wind is falling, but the sky still 
looks lowering to the south and there is a general appear- 
ance of unrest. The temperature has been - io° all day. 
The ponies, which had been so comparatively com- 
fortable in the earlier stages, were hit as usual when the 
snow began to fall. 
We have done everything possible to shelter and 
protect them, but there seems no way of keeping them 
comfortable when the snow is thick and driving fast. 
We men are snug and comfortable enough, but it is very 
evil to lie here and know that the weather is steadily- 
sapping the strength of the beasts on which so much 
depends. It requires much philosophy to be cheerful 
on such occasions. 
In the midst of the drift this forenoon the dog party 
came up and camped about a quarter of a mile to leeward. 
Meares has played too much for safety in catching us so 
