4 66 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[November 
cloud overhead was very remarkable. The sky was 
blue all around the horizon, but overhead a cumulo- 
stratus grew early ; it seemed to be drifting to the south 
and later to the cast. The broken cumulus slowly changed 
to a uniform stratus, which seems to be thinning as the 
sun gains power. There is a very thin, light fall of snow 
crystals, but the surface deposit seems to be abating the 
evaporation for the moment, outpacing the light snowfall. 
The crystals barely exist a moment when they light on our 
equipment, so that everything on and about the sledges is 
drying rapidly. When the sky was clear above the horizon 
we got a good view of the distant land all around to the 
west ; white patches of mountains to the W.S.W. must 
be 1 20 miles distant. During the night we saw Discovery 
and the Royal Society Range, the first view for many 
days, but we have not seen Erebus for a week, and in that 
direction the clouds seem ever to concentrate. It is very 
interesting to watch the weather phenomena of the Barrier, 
but one prefers the sunshine to days such as this, when 
everything is blankly white and a sense of oppression is 
inevitable. 
The temperature fell to - 15 0 last night, with a clear 
sky ; it rose to o° directly the sky covered and is now 
j ust 4- 1 6° to +20°. Most of us are using goggles with 
glass of light green tint. We find this colour very grateful 
to the eyes, and as a rule it is possible to see everything 
through them even more clearly than with naked vision. 
The hard sastrugi are now all from the W.S.W. and 
our cairns are drifted up by winds from that direction ; 
mostly, though, there has evidently been a range of snow- 
