88 
BEN NEVIS IN MID-WINTER. 
other instruments had been stowed away there on November Ist, when 
the daily observations closed, and these it was necessary to bring 
down. After gymnastic acts and feats of equilibrium I reached the 
bottom of this snowy pit, and found that masses of snow had 
accumulated in the interior of my little house, having driven through 
the chinks before the walls were buried, and odd-looking icicles hung 
from the canvas roof. On the snowy wall I found a live gnat. The 
place was now free from further drift, and could have been made quite 
warm and cosy. We only needed for a temporary lodging (had it been 
necessary to spend the night on the Ben) a tarpaulin and plenty of 
rugs for bedding, or, better still, Arctic sleeping bags, more fuel, 
and a lamp. A ladder to the platform of main snow would have 
completed the outfit, and the rude shanty, banked up as it was, 
would have been as habitable an abode as any underground hut in 
Kamtschatka, and lacking but little of the strange fascination of such 
a place. This tends, I think, to show how supportable, if not com¬ 
fortable, life can be made during the winter months on Ben Nevis, 
when once the permanent observatory is up. The interesting work 
and reading will pass away the time, and whatever inconvenience the 
observers may suffer, they will feel at least some satisfaction in know¬ 
ing that by their continuous winter observations—telegraphed daily to 
London—they will contribute to no small extent to the country’s good 
by improving the weather forecasts, to the benefit of the entire com¬ 
munity. Once in the interior of the hut, the hamper containing the 
stowed instruments was soon found. I lifted them out with the 
utmost care, and having packed them in their boxes with plenty of 
wool, prepared for the homeward journey. It was now about 4 30, and 
the surroundings were novel indeed. Our beards and whiskers were 
heavily frosted and “ Renzo ” presented a most grotesque sight with his 
black coat heavily fringed with the mountain rime. Then the 
broad acres of snow peering out through the gathering waves of mist, 
the hoary Arctic-looking cairns, and the fire glowing on the snow in 
the early shades of a winter’s night, gave that peculiar relish that 
only travellers in our circumstances could thoroughly enjoy. 
By 4 40 we had all ready, and, having adjusted burdens, com¬ 
menced the descent. At first it was easy enough to retrace our tracks, 
but on reaching the hard slippery snow banks, at 4,300 feet, it was 
not such a simple matter, and our safety depended on most careful 
steering until we had got clear of the mist. Several slips and tumbles 
occurred, but fortunately no damage was the result. When we 
reached the Plateau of Storms, at 4,000 feet, we had passed from the 
fog, and the picture of a New Year’s evening from the slopes of Ben 
Nevis was sublime. Dark bands of cumulo-sfcratus clouds bordered the 
south-western horizon, which was lit up in background by a bright 
belt of a light orange colour, marking the region of the sun, long set, 
and beautifully illustrating the effects of refraction in prolonging the 
twilight, while immediately above the sky had a most lovely shade of 
azure blue. This gradually deepened into a clear expanse of firma- 
