19 The Journals of Robert Falcon Scott, Arranged by Leonard Huxley 2nd Part of Chapter 9 The Work and the Workers Friday, May 5. Another calm day following a quiet night. Once or twice in the night, a light northerly wind soon dying away. The temperature down to minus 12 degrees. What is the meaning of this comparative warmth? As usual in calms, the wind vane hill temperature is 3 degrees or 4 degrees higher. It is delightful to contemplate the amount of work which is being done at the station. No one is idle, all hands are full, and one cannot doubt that the labor will be productive of remarkable result. I do not think there can be any life quite so demonstrative of character as that which we had on these expeditions. One sees a remarkable reassortment of values, under ordinary conditions that is so easy to carry a point with a little bounce. Self-assertion is a mask which covers many a weakness. As a rule we have neither the time nor the desire to look beneath it, and so it is that commonly we accept people on their own valuation. Here the outward show is nothing. It is the inward purpose that counts. So the gods dwindle and the humbles supplant them. Pretends as useless. One sees Wilson busy with pencil and color box, rapidly and steadily adding to his portfolio of charming sketches and at intervals filling the gaps in his zoological work of discovery times. With already unwilling to give advice and assistance to others at all times, his sound judgment appreciated, and therefore a constant referee. Simpson, master of his craft, untiringly attended to the working of his numerous self-recording instruments, observing all changes with scientific acumen, doing the work of two observers at least, and yet ever seeking to correlate and expand its scope. So the current meteorological and magnetic observations are taken as never before by polar expeditions. Right, good-hearted, strong, keen, striving to saturate his mind with the ice problems of this wonderful region, he has taken the electrical work in hand with all its modern interest of association with radioactivity. Evans, with a clear-minded zeal in his own work, uses it all with the success of result which comes from the taking of pains. Therefrom we derive a singularly exact preservation of time, an important consideration to all, but especially necessary for the physical work. Therefrom also, and including more labor, we have an accurate survey of our immediate surroundings and can trust to possess the correctly mapped results of all surveying data obtained. He has grand for assistant. Taylor's intellect is omnivorous and versatile. His mind is unceasingly active, his grasp wide. Whatever he writes will be of interest. His pen flows well. Devenham's is clearer. Here we have a well-trained, sturdy worker with a quiet meaning that carries conviction. He realizes the conceptions of thoroughness and conscientiousness. To Bowers' practical genius is owed much of the smooth working of our station. He has a natural method in line with which all arrangements fall, so that expenditure is easily and exactly adjusted to supply, and I have the inestimable advantage of knowing the length of time which each of our possessions will last us, and the assurance that there can be no waste. Active mind and active body were never more happily blended. It is a restless activity, admitting no idle moments and everybody into new forms. So we see the balloons ascending under his guidance, and anon he is away over the flow, tracking the silk thread which held it. Such a task completed. He is away to exercise his pony and later out again with the dogs. The last typically self-suggested, because for the moment there is no one else to care for these animals. Now in a similar manner he is spreading thermometer screens to get comparative readings with the home station. He is for the open air seemingly incapable of realizing any discomfort from it, and yet his hours within doors spent with equal profit. For he is intent on tracking the problems of sledging food and clothing to their innermost bearings, and is becoming an authority on past records. This will be no small help to me and one which others could never have given. Adjacent to the physicist's corner of the hut, Atkinson is quietly pursuing the subject of parasites. Already he is in a new world. The laying out of the fish trap was his action, and the catches are his field of labor. Constantly he comes to ask if I would like to see some new form, and I am taken to see some protozoa or a city, and isolated on the slide plate of his microscope. The fishes themselves are comparatively new to science. It is strange that their parasites should have come under investigation so soon. Atkinson's bench, with its array of microscopes, test tubes, spirit lamps, etc., is next to the dark room in which haunting spends the greater part of his life. I would describe him as sustained by artistic enthusiasm. This world of ours is a different one to him than it is to the rest of us. He gauges it by its picturesqueness. His joy is to reproduce its pictures artistically. His grief to fail to do so. No attitude could be happier for the work which he has undertaken, and one cannot doubt its productiveness. I would not imply that he is out of sympathy with the works of the other, which is far from being the case, but that is energy-centered devotedly on the minutiae of his business. Jerry Gerard is another of the open-air, self-effacing, quiet workers. His whole heart is in the life with profound eagerness to help everyone. One has got glimpses of him in tight places, sound all through, and pretty hard also. Indoors he is editing are polar journals. Out of doors he is busy making trials, stone huts, and blubber stoves, primarily with a view to the winter journey to Cape Cruisier, but incidentally these are instructive experiments for any party which may get into difficulty by being cut off from the home station. It is well to know how best to use the scant resources that nature provides in these regions. In this connection I have been studying our Arctic Library to get details concerning snow hut building and the implements used for it. Oat's whole heart is in the ponies. He is really devoted to their care and I believe will produce them in the best possible form for the sledging season. Opening out the doors, installing a blubber stove, etc., has kept him busy while his satellite, Anton, is ever at work in the stables. An excellent little man. Onions and cream are repairing sleeping bags, covering felt boots, and generally working on sledging kit. In fact there is no one idle and no one who has the least prospect of idleness. Saturday, May 6. Two more days of calm interrupted with occasional gusts. Yesterday, Friday evening, Taylor gave an introductory lecture on his remarkably fascinating subject, Modern Physiography. These modern physiographers set out to explain the forms of land erosion on broad commonsense lines heedless of geographical support. They must, in consequence, have their special language. River courses, they say, are not temporary, and the main they are archaic. In conjunction with land elevations they have worked through geographical cycles perhaps many. In each geographical cycle they have advanced from infantile, v-shaped forms. The courses broaden and deepen. The bank slopes reduce an angle as mature stages are reached until the level of sea surface is more and more nearly approximated. In senile stages the river is a broad sluggish stream flowing over a plain with little inequality of level. The cycle is formed of penoplane. Subsequently with fresh elevation a new cycle is commenced. So much for the simple case, but in fact nearly all cases are modified by unequal elevations due to land slips, by variations in hardness of rock, etc. Hence modifications in positions of river courses and the fact of different parts of a single river being in different stages of cycle. Taylor illustrated his explanations with examples. The Red River, Canada. Plain flat though elevated. Water lies in pools. River flows in v-infantile form. The Rhine Valley. The gorgeous scenery from the main down due to infantile form in recently elevated region. The Russian Plains. Examples of senility. Near complexity in the Blue Mountain, these are undoubted earth folds. The Pean River flows through an offshoot of a fold. The valley being made as the fold was elevated. Curious valleys made by erosion of hard rock over line soft. River piracy. Domestic. The short circuiting of a meander such as at Koo and Yardens. Foreign. Such as Shoalhaven River, Australia. Stream has captured river. Land slips have caused the isolation of Lake George and altered the watershed of the whole country to the south. Later on Taylor will deal with the effects of ice and lead us to the formation of the scenery of our own region, and so we shall have much to discuss. Sunday, May 7. Daylight now very short. One wonders why the hutland party does not come. Bowers in Cherry Gerard have set up a thermometer screen containing maximum thermometers and thermographs on the seaflow about three quarters minute northwest of the hut. Another smaller one is to go on top of the ramp. They took the screen out of one of Day's bicycle wheel carriages and found it ran very easily over the salty ice where the sledges give so much trouble. This vehicle is not easily turned but may be very useful before there is much snowfall. Yesterday a balloon was sent up and reached a very good height, probably two to three miles, before the instrument disengaged. The balloon went almost straight up and the silk fell in festoons over the rocky part of the Cape, affording a very difficult clear to follow. But whilst Bowers was following, Atkinson observed the instrument fall a few hundred yards out on the bay. It was recovered and gives the first important record of upper air temperature. Atkinson and Creen put out the fish trap yesterday in about three fathoms of water off the West Beach, both yesterday morning and yesterday evening when the trap was raised. It contained over forty fish, whilst this morning and this evening the catches in the same spot have been from twenty to twenty-five. We had fish for breakfast this morning, but an even more satisfactory result of the catches has been revealed by Atkinson's microscope. He had discovered quite a number of new parasites and found work to last quite a long time. Last night it came my turn to do night watchmen again, so that I shall be glad to have a good sleep tonight. Yesterday we had a game of football. It is pleasant to mess about, but the light is failing. Grisold is still producing food novelties. Tonight we had gallantine of seal. It was excellent. Monday, May 8, Tuesday, May 9. As one of the series of lectures I gave an outline of my plan for next season on Monday evening. Everyone was interested naturally. I could not help but hint that, in my opinion, the problem of reaching the pole can best be solved by relying on the ponies and man hollage. With this sentiment the whole company appeared to be in sympathy. Everyone seems to distrust the dogs when it comes to glacier and summit. I have asked everyone to give thought to the problem, to freely discuss it and bring suggestions to my notice. It's going to be a tough job. That is better realized than I thought. Today, Tuesday, Devenham has been showing me his photographs taken west. With rites and tailors these will make an extremely interesting series. The ice forms, especially in the region of Coalatilates Glacier, are unique. The strait has been frozen over a week. I cannot understand why the hot point party doesn't return. The weather continues wonderfully calm, though now looking a little unsettled. Perhaps the unsettled look stops the party, or perhaps it waits for the moon, which will be bright in a day or two. Anyway, I wish it would return, and shall not be free from anxiety till it does. Jerry Gerard is experimenting in stone huts and with blubber fires, all with a view to prolonging this day at Cape Crozier. Bowers has placed one thermometer screen on the flow about three-quarter minutes out, and another smaller one above the ramp. Oddly the flow temperature seems to agree with that on Windvane Hill, whilst the hut temperature is always four degrees or three degrees colder in calm weather. To complete the records the thermometer is to be placed in South Bay. Science. The rock foundation of all effort. Wednesday, May 10. It has been blowing from the south 12 to 20 miles per hour since last night. The ice remains fast. The temperature minus 12 degrees to minus 19 degrees. The party does not come. I went well beyond inaccessible island till hut point and castle rock appeared beyond Tent Island, that is well out into the space which was last seen as open water. The ice is nine inches thick, not much for eight or nine days freezing, and it is very solid. The surface wet but very slippery. I suppose mirrors waits for 12 inches in thickness, or fears the flow is too slippery for the ponies. Yet I wish he would come. I took a thermometer on my walk today. The temperature was minus 12 degrees inside inaccessible island but only minus eight degrees on the sea ice outside. The wind seemed less outside. Coming in under a lee of island and bergs I was reminded of the difficulty of finding shelter in these regions. The weather side of hills seems to afford better shelter than the lee side, as I have remarked elsewhere. May it be in part because all the lee sides tend to be filled by drift snow, blown and weathered rock debris. There was a good lee under one of the bergs in one corner of the ice sloped out over me and on either side forming a sort of grotto. Here the air was absolutely still. Fontaine gave us an interesting lecture on Burma. Illustrated with fine slides. His descriptive language is florid but shows the artistic temperament. Bowers and Simpson were able to give personal reminiscences on this land of pagodas, and the discussion led to interesting statements on the religion, art, and education of its people, their philosophic idleness, etc. Our lectures are a real success. Friday, May 12. Yesterday morning was quiet. Played football in the morning. Wind got up in the afternoon and evening. All day it has been blowing hard, thirty to sixty miles an hour. It has never looked very dark overhead, but a watery cirrus has been in evidence for some time, causing well-marked parasolini. I have not been far from the hut, but had a great fear on one occasion that the ice had gone out in the straight. The wind is dropping this evening, and I have been up to Windvein Hill. I now think the ice has remained fast. There has been astonishing little drift with the wind, probably due to the fact that there has been so very little snowfall of light. Atkinson is pretty certain that he has isolated a very motile bacterium in the snow. It is probably airborne, and though no bacteria have been found in the air, this may be carried in upper currents and brought down by the snow, if corrected as an interesting discovery. Tonight, Ben and Ham gave a geological lecture. It was elementary. He gave little more than the rough origin and classification of rocks, with a view to making his further lectures better understood. Saturday, May 13. The wind dropped about ten last night. This morning it was calm and clear save for a light misty veil of ice crystals, through which the snow shone with scarce clouded brilliancy, surrounded with bright curiform halo and white parasol in it. Mach moons with prismatic patches of color appeared in the radiant ring, echoes of the main source of light. Wilson has a charming sketch of the phenomenon. I went to inaccessible islands, and climbing some way up the steep western face reassured myself concerning the ice. It was evident that there had been no movement in consequence of yesterday's blow. In climbing I had to scramble up some pretty steep rock faces and screens, and held on only in anticipation of gaining the top of the island and an easy descent. Instead of this I came to an impossible, overhanging cliff of lava, and was forced to descend as I had come up. It was no easy task, and I was glad to get down with only one slip, when I brought myself up with my ice axe in the nick of time to prevent a fall over a cliff. This island is very steep on all sides. There is only one known place of ascent. It will be interesting to try and find others. After T. Atkinson came in with the glad tidings that the dog team were returning from Hut Point. We were soon on the flow to welcome the last remnant of our wintering party. Mirrors reported everything well, and the pony's not far behind. The dogs were unharnessed and tied up to the chains. They are all looking remarkably fit. Apparently they have given no trouble at all of late, there have not even been any fights. Half an hour later, Day, Lashley, Nelson, Ford, and Kena Hain arrived with the two ponies, men and animals in good form. It is a great comfort to have the men and dogs back, and a greater two conom plate, all the ten ponies, comfortably stable for the winter. Everything seems to depend on these animals. I have not seen the meteorological record brought back, but it appears that the party had had very fine calm weather since we left them, except during the last three days when wind has been very strong. It is curious that we should have got only one day with wind. I am promised the sea freezing record tomorrow. Four seals were got on April 22, the day after we left, and others have been killed since, so that there is a plentiful supply of blubber and seal meat at the hut. The rest of the supply it seemed to have been pretty well run out. Some more forage had been fetched in from the depot. A young sea leopard had been killed on the sea ice near Castle Rock three days ago, this being the second only found in the sound. It is a strange fact that none of the returning parties seem to greatly appreciate the food luxuries they have had since their return. It would have been the same with us had we not had a day or two intense before our return. It seems more and more certain that a very simple fair is all that is needed here. Plenty of seal meat, flour and fat, with tea, cocoa and sugar. These are the only real requirements for a comfortable existence. The temperatures at that point have not been as low as I expected. There seems to have been an extraordinary heat wave during the spell of calm recorded since we left, the thermometer registering little below zero until the wind came when it fell to minus 20 degrees. Thus, as an exception, we have had a fall instead of a rise of temperature with wind. Parenthetically, the exact inventory of stores at that point here recorded has no immediate bearing on the history of the expedition, but may be noted as illustrating the care and thoroughness with which all operations were conducted. Other details as to the carbide consumed in making the settling gas may be briefly quoted. The first tin was opened on February 1, the second on March 26, the seventh on May 20, the next eight at an average interval of nine and one-half days, and the parentheses. Sunday, May 14, gray and dull in the morning. Exercise the ponies and held the usual service. This morning I gave right some notes containing speculations on the amount of ice on the Antarctic continent and on the effects of winter movement in the sea ice. I want to get into his head the larger bearing of the problems which our physical investigations involve. He needs two years here to fully realize these things, and with all his intelligence and energy will produce little unless he has that extended experience. The sky cleared at noon, and this afternoon I walked over the north bay to the ice cliffs. Such a very beautiful afternoon and evening. The scene bathed in moonlight so bright and pure as to be almost golden, a very wonderful scene. At such times the bay seems strangely homely, especially when the eye rests on our camp with the hot and lighted windows. I am very much impressed with the extraordinary and general cordiality of the relations which exist amongst our people. I do not suppose that a statement of the real truth, namely that there is no fiction at all, will be credited. It is so generally thought that the many rubs of such a life as this are quietly and purposely sunk in oblivion. With me there is no need to draw avail, there is nothing to cover. There are no strained relations in this hut, and nothing more emphatically evident than the universally amiable spirit which is shown on all occasions. Such a state of affairs would be delightfully surprising under any conditions, but it is much more so when one remembers the diverse assortment of our company. The theme is worthy of expansion. Tonight Oats, Captain in a Smart Calvary Regiment, has been scrapping over chairs and tables with Debenham, a young Australian student. It is a triumph to have collected such men. The temperature has been down to minus 23 degrees, the lowest yet recorded here. Doubtless we shall soon get lower, for I find an extraordinary difference between this season as far as it is gone, and those of 1902-03. End of Chapter 9. Recorded by Tom Crawford, Kool, California, USA, May 2009. Section 20 of Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 1. The Journals of Robert Falcon Scott, arranged by Leonard Huxley. Chapter 10. In winter quarters, modern style. Monday, May 15. The wind has been strong from the north all day, about 30 miles an hour. A bank of stratus cloud, about 6000 or 7000 feet, measured by arabus, has been passing rapidly overhead towards the north. It is nothing new to find the overlaying layers of air moving in opposite directions. But it is strange that the phenomenon is so persistent. Simpson has frequently remarked as a great feature of weather conditions here, the seeming reluctance of the air to mix. The fact seems to be the explanation of many curious fluctuations of temperature. Went for a short walk, but it was not pleasant. Wilson gave an interesting lecture on penguins. He explained the primitive characteristics in the arrangement of feathers on wings and body, the absence of primaries and secondaries or bare tracks, the modification of the muscles of the wings and in the structure of the feet, the metatarsal joint. He pointed out, and the subsequent discussion seemed to support him, that these birds probably branched at a very early stage of bird life, coming pretty directly from the lizard bird, Archaeopteryx of the Jurassic Age. Fossils of giant penguins of Eocene and Myocene ages showed that there has been extremely little development since. He passed on to the classification and habitat of different genera, nest-making habits, eggs, etc. Then to a brief account of the habits of the emperors and the edelis, which was, of course, less novel ground for the old hands. Of special points of interest, I recall his explanation of the desirability of embryonic study of the emperor to throw further light on the development of the species in the loss of teeth, etc., and hauntings, contribution and observation of adult edelis teaching their young to swim. This point has been obscure. It has been said that the old birds pushed the young into the water, and per contra, that they leave them deserted in the rookery. Both statements seemed unlikely. It would not be strange if the young edelis had to learn to swim. It is a well-known requirement of the northern fur seal, sea-bear, but it will be interesting to see in how far the adult birds lay themselves out to instruct their progeny. During our trip to the ice and sledge journey, one of our dogs, Veda, was especially distinguished for his savage temper and generally uncouth manners. He became a bad wreck with his poor coat at Hutt Point, and in this condition I used to massage him. At first the operation was mistrusted and only continued to the accompaniment of much growling. But later he evidently grew to like the warming effect and sidled up to me whenever I came out of the hut, though still with some suspicion. On returning here he seemed to know me at once, and now comes and buries his head in my legs whenever I go out of doors. He allows me to rub him and push him about without the slightest protest and scampers about me as I walk abroad. He is a strange beast. I imagine so unused to kindness that it took him time to appreciate it. Tuesday, May 16. The north wind continued all night but dropped this forenoon. Conveniently it became calm at noon and we had a capital game of football. The light is good enough, but not much more than good enough for this game. I had some instruction from Wright this morning on the electrical instruments. Later went into our carbide expenditure with Day. I am glad to find it sufficient for two years, but I am not making this generally known as there are few things in which less economy is studied than light if regulations allow waste. Electrical Instruments For measuring the ordinary potential gradient we have two self-recording quadrant electrometers. The principle of this instrument is the same as that of the old Kelvin instrument. The clockwork attached to it unrolls a strip of paper wound on a roller. At intervals the needle of the instrument is depressed by an electromagnet and makes a dot on the moving paper. The relative position of these dots forms the record. One of our instruments is adjusted to give only one-tenth the refinement of the measurement of the other by means of reduction in the length of the quartz fiber. The object of this is to continue the record in snowstorms, etc., when the potential difference of air and earth is very great. The instruments are kept charged with batteries of small Daniels cells. The clocks are controlled by a master clock. The instrument available for radioactivity measurements is a modified type of the old gold leaf electroscope. The measurement is made by the mutual repulsion of quartz fibers acting against a spring. The extent of the repulsion is very clearly shown against a scale magnified by a telescope. The measurements to be made with instrument are various. The ionization of the air, a length of wire charged with 2000 volts negative, is exposed to the air for several hours. It is then coiled on a frame and its rate of discharge measured by the electroscope. The radioactivity of the various rocks of our neighborhood, this by direct measurement of the rock. The conductivity of the air, that is, the relative movement of ions in the air by movement of air past charged surface. Rate of absorption of positive and negative ions is measured, the negative ion traveling faster than the positive. Wednesday, May 17. For the first time this season we have a rise of temperature with a southerly wind. The wind force has been about 30 since yesterday evening. The air is fairly full of snow and the temperature has risen to negative 6 from negative 18 degrees. I heard one of the dogs barking in the middle of the night and on inquiry learned that it was one of the Ceres, the white dogs, that he seemed to have something wrong with his hind leg and that he had been put under shelter. This morning the poor brute was found dead. I'm afraid we can place but little reliance on our dog teams and reflect ruefully on the misplaced confidence with which I regarded the provision of our transport. Well, one must suffer for errors of judgment. This afternoon Wilson held a post-mortem on the dog. He could find no sufficient cause of death. This is the third animal that has died at winter quarters without apparent cause.  Went up the ramp this morning. There was light enough to see our camp and it looked homely as it does from all sides. Somehow we loom larger here than at Cape Armitage. We seem to be more significant. It must be from contrast of size, the larger hills tend to dwarf the petty human element. Tonight the wind has gone back to the north and is now blowing fresh. This sudden and continued complete change of direction is new to our experience. Oates has just given us an excellent little lecture on the management of horses. He explained his plan of feeding our animals soft during the winter and hardening them up during the spring. He pointed out that the horses' natural food, being grass and hay, he would naturally employ a great number of hours in the day filling a stomach of small capacity, with food from which he could derive only a small percentage of nutriment. Hence it is desirable to feed horses often and light. His present routine is as follows. Morning. Shaff. Noon after exercise. Snow. Chaff and either oats or oil cake alternate days. Evening. Five p.m. Snow. Hot brand mash with oat cake or boiled oats and chaff. Finally a small quantity of hay. This sort of food should be causing the animals to put on flesh, but is not preparing them for work. In October he proposes to give hard food, all cold, and to increase the exercising hours. As concerning the food we possess he thinks, the chaff made of young wheat and hay is doubtful. There does not seem to be any grain with it, and would farmers cut young wheat? There does not seem to be any fat in this food, but it is very well for ordinary winter purposes. N.B. It seems to me this ought to be inquired into. Brand much discussed, but good because it causes horses to chew the oats with which mixed. Oil cake. Greasy. Producing energy. Excellent for horses to work on. Oats, of which we have two qualities, also very good working food. Our white quality much better than the brown. Our trainer went on to explain the value of training horses of getting them balanced to pull with less effort. He owns it is very difficult when one is walking horses only for exercise, but thinks something can be done by walking them fast and occasionally making them step backwards. Oats referred to the deeds that had been done with horses by foreigners in shows and with polo ponies by Englishmen when the animals were trained. It is, he said, a sort of gymnastic training. The discussion was very instructive, and I have only noted the salient points. Thursday, May 18. The wind dropped in the night. Today it is calm with slight snowfall. We have had an excellent football match. The only outdoor game possible in this light. I think our winter routine very good. I suppose every leader of a party has thought that, since he has the power of altering it. On the other hand, routine in this connection must take into consideration the facilities of work and play afforded by the preliminary preparations for the expedition. The winter occupations of most of our party depend on the instruments and implements, the clothing and sledging outfit provided by the forethought, and the routine is adapted to these occupations. The busy winter routine of our party may therefore be exclusively held as a subject for self-congratulation. Friday, May 19. Wind from the north in the morning, temperature comparatively high, about negative six. We played football during the noon hour. The game gets better as we improve our football condition and skill. In the afternoon the wind came from the north, dying away again late at night. In the evening Wright lectured on ice problems. He had a difficult subject and was nervous. He is young and has never done original work, is only beginning to see the importance of his task. He started on the crystallization of ice and explained with very good illustrations the various forms of crystals, the manner of their growth under different conditions and different temperatures. This was instructive. Passing to the freezing of salt water he was very clear. Then onto glaciers and their movements, theories for the same and observations in these regions. There was a good deal of disconnected information. Silt vans, crevices were mentioned. Finally he put the problems of larger aspect. The upshot of the discussion was a decision to devote another evening to the larger problems such as the great ice barrier and the interior ice sheet. I think I will write the paper to be discussed on this occasion. I note with much satisfaction that the talks on ice problems and the interest shown in them has had the effect of making Wright devote the whole of his time to them. That may mean a great deal, for he is a hard and conscientious worker. Atkinson has a new hole for his fish trap in fifteen fathoms. Yesterday morning he got a record catch of forty-three fish, but oddly enough yesterday evening there were only two caught. Saturday May twenty-th. Blowing hard from the south with some snow and very cold. Few of us went far. Wilson and Bowers went to the top of the ramp and found the wind there four six to seven, temperature negative twenty-four degrees. As consequence they got frostbitten. There was lively cheering when they reappeared in this condition, such as the sympathy which is here displayed for affliction, but with Wilson much of the amusement arises from his peculiarly scant headgear and the confessed jealousy of those of us who cannot face the weather with so little face protection. The wind dropped at night. Sunday May twenty-first. Observed as usual. It blew from the north in the morning. Had an idea to go to Cape Roids this evening, but it was reported that the open water reached to the barn glacier, and last night my own observation seemed to confirm this. This afternoon I started out for the open water. I found the ice solid off the barn glacier tongue, but always ahead of me a dark horizon as though I was within a very short distance of its edge. I held on with this appearance still holding up to Cape Barn itself, and then passed the Cape and half way between it and Cape Roids. This was far enough to make it evident that the ice was continuous to Cape Roids, and has been so for a long time. Under these circumstances the continual appearance of open water to the north is most extraordinary and quite inexplicable. I've had some very interesting discussions with Wilson, Wright, and Taylor on the ice formations to the west. How to account for the marine organisms found on the weathered glacier ice north of the cutlet's glacier. We have been elaborating a theory under which this ice had once a negative buoyancy due to the moranic material on top and in the lower layers of the ice mass, and had subsequently floated when the greater amount of this material had weathered out. Have a range to go to Cape Roids tomorrow. The temperatures have sunk very steadily this year, for a long time they hung about zero, then for a considerable interval remained about negative ten degrees. Now they are down in the minus-twenties with signs of falling. Today negative twenty-four. Bowers's meteorological stations have been amusingly named Archibald, Bertram, Clarence. They are entered by the initial letter, but spoken of by full title. Tonight we had a glorious auroral display, quite the most brilliant I have seen. At one time the sky from north-northwest to south-southeast, as high as the zenith, was massed with arches, bands and curtains, always in rapid movement. The waving curtains were especially fascinating. A wave of bright light would start at one end and run along to the other, or a patch of brighter light would spread as if to reinforce the falling light of the curtain. A Rural Notes The auroral light is of a palish green color, but we now see, distinctly, a red flush preceding the motion of any bright light. The green ghostly light seems suddenly to spring to life with rosy blushes. There is infinite suggestion in this phenomenon, and in that lies its charm. The suggestion of life, form, color and movement nevertheless than evanescent, mysterious, no reality. It is the language of mystic signs and portents, the inspiration of the gods, wholly spiritual, divine signalling. Remindful of superstition, provocative of imagination. Might not the inhabitants of some other world, Mars, controlling mighty forces thus surround our globe with fiery symbols, a golden writing which we have not the key to decipher? There is argument on the confession of Ponting's inability to obtain photographs of the aurora. Professor Stormer of Norway seems to have been successful. Simpson made notes of his method, which seems to depend merely on the rapidity of lens and plate. Ponting claims to have greater rapidity in both, yet gets no result even with long exposure. It is not only a question of aurora. The stars are equally reluctant to show themselves on Ponting's plate. Even with five seconds exposure the stars become short lines of light on the plate of fixed camera. Stormer's stars are points, and therefore his exposure must have been short. Yet there is detail in some of his pictures which it seems impossible could have been got with a short exposure. It is all very puzzling. THE JOURNALS OF ROBERT FALCON Scott Arrange by Leonard Huxley Second Part of Chapter 10 In Winter Quarters Modern Style Monday, May 22 Wilson, Bowers, Atkinson, Evans, P.O. Cliss-Old and Self went to see-roids with a go-kart carrying our sleeping bags, a cooker, and a small quantity of provision. The go-kart consists of a framework of steel tubing supported on four bicycle wheels. The surface of the flows carries one to two inches of snow barely covering the salt-ice flowers, and for this condition this vehicle of days is excellent. The advantage is that it meets the case where the salt crystals form a heavy frictional surface for wood runners. I am inclined to think that there are great numbers of cases when wheels would be more efficient than runners on the sea-ice. We reached Cape Roids in two and one-half hours, killing an emperor penguin in the bay beyond C. Barn. This bird was in splendid plumage, the breast reflecting the dim northern light like a mirror. It was fairly dark when we stumbled over the rocks and dropped on to Shackleton's hut. Cliss-Old started the cooking range. Wilson and I walked over to the Black Beach and round back by Blue Lake. The temperature was down at minus thirty-one degrees, and the interior of the hut was very cold. Tuesday May twenty-three. We spent the morning mustering the stores within and without the hut after a cold night which we passed very comfortably in our bags. We found a good quantity of flour and Danish butter and a fair amount of paraffin with smaller supplies of assorted articles, the whole sufficient to afford provision for such a party as ours for about six or eight months if well administered. In case of necessity this would undoubtedly be very useful reserved to fall back upon. These stores are somewhat scattered and the hut has a dilapidated comfortless appearance due to its tenetless condition. But even so it seemed to me much less inviting than our old hut at Sea Armitage. After a cup of cocoa there was nothing to detain us and we started back the only useful articles added to our weights being a scrap or two of leather and five hymn books. Hitherto we have been only able to muster seven copies. This increase will improve our Sunday services. Today May 24 A quiet day with northerly wind the temperature rose gradually to zero. Having the night duty did not go out. The moon is gone and there is little to attract one out of doors. Atkinson gave us an interesting little discourse on parasitology with a brief account of the life history of some acto and some endo-parasites, nematodes, trematodes. He pointed out how that in nearly every case there was a secondary host, how in some cases disease was caused and in others the presence of the parasite was even helpful. He acknowledged the small progress that has been made in this study. He mentioned ankylostomiasis, blood-sucking worms, bilartia, trimatode, blacking bladder, Egypt, philaria, round-tapeworm, guinea worm, trichina, pork, and others pointing to diseases caused. From worms he went to protozoa, tropanosomes, sleeping sickness, host tzitzifli, showed life history comparatively, propagated in secondary host or insisting in primary host, similarly malarial germs spread by anopheles mosquitoes, all very interesting. In the discussion following Wilson gave some account of the grouse disease worm and especially of the interest in finding free living species almost identical, also part of the life of disease worm is free living. Here we approached a point pressed by Nelson concerning the degeneration consequent on adoption of the parasitic habit. All parasites seem to have descended from free living beasts. One asks, what is degeneration without receiving a very satisfactory answer? After all, such terms must be empirical. Thursday, May 25. It has been blowing from south with heavy gusts and snow. Temperature extraordinarily high, minus six degrees. This has been a heavy gale. The weather conditions are certainly very interesting. Simpson has again called attention to the wind in February, March, and April at Cape Evans. The record shows an extraordinary large percentage of gales. It is quite certain that we scarcely got a fraction of the wind on the barrier and doubtful if we got as much at Hut Point. Friday, May 26. A calm and clear day. A nice change from recent weather. It makes an enormous difference to the enjoyment of this life if one is able to get out and stretch one's legs every day. This morning I went up the ramp. No sign of open water, so that my fears for a broken highway in the coming season are now at rest. In future gales can only be a temporary annoyance. Anxiety as to their result is finally allayed. This afternoon I searched out ski and ski sticks and went for a short run over the flow. The surface is quite good since the recent snowfall and wind. This is satisfactory as sledging can now be conducted on ordinary lines, and if convenient our parties can pull on ski. The young ice troubles of April and May have passed away. It is curious that circumstances caused us to miss them altogether during our stay in the discovery. We are living extraordinarily well.  This was followed by an equally tasty seal steak and kidney pie and a fruit jelly. The smell of frying greeted us on awakening this morning, and at breakfast each of us had two of our nutty little notothenia fish after our bowl of porridge. These little fish have an extraordinarily sweet taste. Red and butter and marmalade finished the meal. At the midday meal we had bread and butter, cheese and cake, and tonight I smell mutton in the preparation. Under the circumstances it would be difficult to conceive more of appetizing repasts or a regime which is likely to produce score-beauty symptoms. I cannot think we shall get scurvy. Nelson lectured us tonight, giving a very able little elementary sketch of the objects of the biologist. A fact struck one in his explanation of the rates of elimination. Two of the offspring of two parents alone survive, speaking broadly. This is the same of the human species or the ling with 24 million eggs in the row of each female. He talked much of evolution, adaptation, etc. Mendelism became the most debated point of the discussion. The transmission of characters has a wonderful fascination for the human mind. There was also a point striking deep in the debate on Professor Loeb's experiment with sea urchins. How far had he succeeded in reproducing the species without the males from Mattozoa? Not very far, it seemed, when all was said. A theme for a pen would be the expansion of interest in polar affairs. Compare the interests of a winter spent by the old arctic voyagers with our own, and look into the causes. The aspect of everything changes as our knowledge expands. The expansion of human interest in rude surroundings may perhaps best be illustrated by comparisons. It will serve to recall such a simple case as the fact that our ancestors applied the terms horrid, frightful, to mountain crags, which in our own day are more justly admired as lofty, grand, and beautiful. The poetic conception of this natural phenomenon has followed not so much an inherent change of sentiment as the intimacy of wider knowledge and the death of superstitious influence. One is much struck by the importance of realizing limits. Saturday, May 27, a very unpleasant cold and windy day, annoyed with the conditions so did not go out. In the evening Bowers gave his lecture on sludging diets. He has shown great courage in undertaking the task, great perseverance in unearthing facts from books, and a considerable practical skill in stringing these together. It is a thankless task to search polar literature for dietary facts and still more difficult to attach due weight to varying statements. Some authors omit discussion of this important item altogether. Others fail to note alterations made in practice, or additions afforded by circumstances. Others again forget to describe the nature of various foodstuffs. Our lecturer was both entertaining and instructive when he dealt with old-time rations. But he naturally grew weak in approaching the physiological aspect of the question. He went through with it manfully, and with a touch of humor much appreciated. Whereas, for instance, he deduced facts from the equivalent of Mr. Jewel, a gentleman whose statements he had no reason to doubt. Wilson was the mainstay of the subsequent discussion and put all doubtful matters in a clearer light. Increase your fats, carbohydrate is what science seems to say, and practice with conservatism is inclined to step cautiously in response to this urgence. I shall, of course, go into the whole question as thoroughly as available information and experience permits. Meanwhile it is useful to have had a discussion which aired the popular opinions. Feeling went deepest on the subject of tea versus cocoa. Admitting all that can be said concerning stimulation and reaction, I am inclined to see much in favor of tea. Why should not one be mildly stimulated during the marching hours if one can cope with reaction by profounder rest during the hours of inaction? Sunday, May 28 Quite an excitement last night. One of the ponies, the gray which I led last year and salved from the flow, either fell or tried to lie down in his stall, his head being lashed up to the stanchions on either side. In this condition he struggled and kicked till his body was twisted right round and his attitude extremely uncomfortable. Very luckily his struggles were hurt almost at once and his head ropes being cut oats got him on his feet again. He looked a good deal distressed at the time but is now quite well again and has been out for his usual exercise. Held service as usual. This afternoon went on ski around the bay and back across. Little or no wind, sky clear, temperature minus twenty-five degrees. It was wonderfully mild considering the temperature. This sounds paradoxical but the sensation of cold does not conform to the thermometer. It is obviously dependent on the wind and less obviously on the humidity of the air and the ice crystals floating in it. I cannot very clearly account for this effect but as a matter of fact I have certainly felt colder in still air at minus ten degrees. Then I did today when the thermometer was down to minus twenty-five degrees. Other conditions apparently equal. The amazing circumstance is that by no means can we measure the humidity or indeed the precipitation or evaporation. I have just been discussing with Simpson the insuperable difficulties that stand in the way of experiment in this direction since cold air can only hold the smallest quantities of moisture and saturation covers an extremely small range of temperature. Monday May twenty-nine. Another beautiful calm day. Went out both before and after the midday meal. This morning with Wilson and Bowers toward the thermometer off inaccessible island. On my way my companiable dog was heard barking and dimly seen. We went toward him and found that he was worrying a young seal leopard. This is the second found in the straight this season. We had to secure it as a specimen but it was sad to have to kill. The long, lithe body of this seal makes it almost beautiful in comparison with our stout bloated whettles. This poor beast turned swiftly from side to side as we strove to stun it with a blow on the nose. As it turned it gaped its jaws wide but oddly enough not a sound came forth not even a hiss. After lunch a sledge was taken out to secure the prize which had been photographed by flashlight. Ponting has been making great advances in flashlight work and has opened up quite a new field in which artistic results can be obtained in the winter. Lecture. Japan. Tonight Ponting gave us a charming lecture on Japan with wonderful illustrations of his own. He is happiest in his descriptions of the artistic side of the people with which he is in fullest sympathy. So he took us to see the flower pageants, the joyful festivals of the cherry blossom, the wisteria, the iris and chrysanthemum, the somber colors of the beach blossom, and the paths about the lotus gardens where mankind meditated in solemn mood. We had pictures too of Niko and its beauties of temples and great Buddhas. Then in more touristy strain of volcanoes and their craters, waterfalls and river gorges, tiny tree-clad islets that feature of Japan, baths and their bathers, anos and so on. His descriptions were well given and we all of us thoroughly enjoyed our evening. Thursday, May 30. I am busy with my physiological investigations. Footnote. i.e. in relation to sledging ration. End of footnote. Atkinson reported a sea leopard at the tide crack. It proved to be a crab-eater, young and very active. In curious contrast to the sea leopard of yesterday, in snapping around it uttered considerable noise, a gaspingly throaty growl. Went out to the Outer Berg, where there was quite a collection of people mostly in connection with potting, who had brought camera and flashlight. It was beautifully calm and comparatively warm. It was good to hear the gate chatter and laughter and see ponies and their leaders come up out of the gloom to add liveliness to the scene. The sky was extraordinarily clear at noon and to the north very bright. We have had an exceptionally large tidal range during the last three days. It has upset the tide gauge arrangements and brought a little doubt on the method. Day is going into the question, which we thoroughly discussed today. Tidal measurements will be worse than useless unless we can be sure of the accuracy of our methods. Pools of saltwater have formed over the beach flows in consequence of the high tide, and in the chase of the crab eater, today, very brilliant flashes of phosphorescent light appeared in these pools. We think it due to a small cape pod. I have just found a reference to the same phenomena in Nordenskid's Vega. He and apparently Bello before him noted the phenomenon, an interesting instance of bipolarity. Another interesting phenomenon observed today was a cirrus cloud lit by sunlight. It was seen by Wilson and Bowers five degrees above the northern horizon. The sun is nine degrees below our horizon, and without refraction we calculated a cloud could be seen which was 12 miles high. Allowing refraction the phenomenon appears very possible. Wednesday, May 31. The sky was overcast this morning and the temperature up to minus 13 degrees went out after lunch to land's end. The surface of snow was sticky for ski, except where drifts were deep. There was an oppressive feel in the air, and I got very hot, coming in with head and hands bare. At five, from dead calm, the wind suddenly sprang up from the south, force 40 miles per hour, and since that it has been blowing a blizzard. Wind very gusty from 20 to 60 miles. I have never known a storm come on so suddenly, and it shows what possibility there is of individuals becoming lost, even if they go only a short way from the hut. Tonight Wilson has given us a very interesting lecture on sketching. He started by explaining his methods of rough sketch and written color record, and explained its suitability to this climate as opposed to colored chalks, etc. A very practical method for cold fingers and one that becomes more accurate with practice and observation. His theme then became the extreme importance of accuracy. His mode of expression and explanation frankly rust can ask. Don't put in meaningless lines. Every line should be from observation. So with contrast of light and shade, fine shading, subtle distinction, everything, impossible without care, patience, and trained attention. He raised a smile by generalizing failures and sketches of others of our party which had been brought to him for criticism. He pointed out how much had been put in from preconceived notion. He will draw a burg faithfully, as it is now, and as he studies it, but he leaves sea and sky to be put in afterwards, as he thinks they must be like sea and sky everywhere else. And he is content to try and remember how these should be done. Nature's harmonies cannot be guessed at. He quoted much from Ruskin leading on a little deeper to composition, paying a hearty tribute to Ponting. The lecture was delivered in the author's usual modest strain, but unconsciously it was expressive of himself and his whole-hearted thoroughness. He stands very high in the scale of human beings. How high I scarcely knew till the experience of the past few months. There is no member of our party so universally esteemed. Only tonight I realize how patiently and consistently he has given time and attention to help the efforts of the other sketchers. And so it is all through. He has had a hand in almost every lecture given and has been consulted in almost every effort which has been made toward the solution of the practical or theoretical problems of our polar world. The achievement of a great result by patient work is the best possible object lesson for struggling humanity. For the results of genius, however admirable, can rarely be instructive. The chief of the scientific staff sets an example which is more potent than any other factor in maintaining that bond of good fellowship which is the marked and beneficent characteristic of our community. Of Scott's Last Expedition Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. Scott's Last Expedition Volume 1. The journals of Robert Falcon Scott are arranged by Leonard Huxley. Chapter 11. To midwinter day. Thursday June 1st. The wind blew hard all night arising to 72 miles per hour. The anometer choked five times. Temperature plus nine degree. It is still blowing this morning. Incidentally, we have found that these heavy winds react very conveniently on our ventilating system. A fire is always a good ventilator ensuring the circulation of inside air and the in draft of fresh air. It's defect as a ventilator lies in the low level at which it extracts inside air. Our ventilating system utilizes the normal fire draft but also by suitable holes in the funneling causes the same draft to extract foul air at higher levels. I think this is the first time such a system has been used. It is a bold step to make holes in the funneling as obviously any uncertainty of draft might fill the hut with smoke. Since this does not happen with us, it follows that there is always strong suction through our stove pipes and this is achieved by their exceptionally large dimensions and by the length of the outer chimney pipe. With when this draft is greatly increased and with high winds the draft will be too great for the stoves if it were not for the relief of the ventilating holes. In these circumstances, therefore, the rate of extraction of air automatically rises and since high wind is usually accompanied with marked rise of temperature, the rise occurs in the most convenient season when the interior of the hut would otherwise tend to become oppressively warm. The practical result of the system is that in spite of the numbers of people living in the hut, the cooking and the smoking, the inside air is nearly always warm, sweet and fresh. There is usually a drawback to the best of arrangements and I have said nearly always. The exceptions in this connection occur when the outside air is calm and warm and the gallery fire, as in the early morning, needs to be worked up. It is necessary under these conditions to temporarily close the ventilating holes and if at this time the cook is intent on preparing our breakfast with a frying pan, we are quickly made aware of his intentions. A combination of this sort is rare and lasts only for a very short time for directly the fire is aglow, the ventilator can be opened again and the relief is almost instantaneous. This very satisfactory condition of inside air must be a highly important factor in the preservation of health. I have today regularized the pony nicknames. I must leave it to Drake to pull out the relation to the proper names according to our school contracts. Footnote, officially the ponies were named after the several schools which had subscribed for their purchase but sailors are inveterate nicknames and the unofficial humor prevailed. End of footnote. The nicknames are as follows, James Pig, Keohane, Bones, Korean, Michael, Clisseld, Snatcher, Evans, P.O., in parentheses, Jehu, no entry, China, no entry, Christopher Hooper, Victor Bowers, Snippets, Winsucker, in parentheses, Nobby, Lashley, Friday, June 2nd, the wind still high. The drift ceased at an early hour yesterday. It is difficult to account for the fact. At night the sky cleared. Then and this morning we had a fair display of Aurora streamers to the north and a faint arch east. Curiously enough the temperature still remains high about positive seven degree. The meteorological conditions are very puzzling. Saturday, June 3rd. The wind dropped last night but at 4am suddenly sprang up from a dead calm to 30 miles an hour. Almost instantaneously, certainly within the space of one minute, there was a temperature rise of nine degrees. It is the most extraordinary and interesting example of a rise of temperature with a southerly wind that I can remember. It is certainly difficult to account for unless we imagine that during the calm the surface layer of cold air is extremely thin and that there is a steep inverted gradient. When the wind arose the sky overhead was clearer than I ever remember to have seen it.  The wind has continued all day making it unpleasant out of doors. I went for a walk over the land. It was dark, the rock very black, very little snow line.  Had been digging away at food statistics. Simpson has just given us a discourse in the ordinary lecture series on his instruments. Having already described these instruments there is little to comment upon. He is excellently lucid in his explanations. As an analogy to the attempt to make a scientific observation when the condition under consideration is affected by the means employed he rather quaintly cited the impossibility of discovering the length of trousers by bending over to sea. The following are the instruments described. Features. The outside, bimetallic in parentheses, thermograph. The inside, thermograph, alcohol in parentheses. Alcohol-inspiral small lead pipe, float vessel. The electrically recording anemometer. Cam device with contact on wheel, slowing arrangement, inertia of wheel. The dined anemometer. Parabola on immersed float. The recording wind vane, metallic pen. The magnetometer. Horizontal force measured in two directions. Vertical force in one, timing arrangement. The high and low potential apparatus of the balloon, thermograph. Spotting arrangement and difference. Sea, ante. Simpson is admirable as a worker. Admirable as a scientist and admirable as a lecturer. Sunday, June 4th. A calm and beautiful day. The account of this, a typical Sunday, would run as follows. Breakfast. A half hour or so selecting hymns and preparing for service whilst the height is being cleared up. The service. A hymn. Morning prayer to the Psalms. Another hymn. Prayers for communion service and litany. A final hymn and our special prayer. Wilson strikes the note on which the hymn is to start and I try to hit it after with doubtful success. After church the men go out with their ponies. Today Wilson, Bowers, Cherry Gerard, Lashley, and I went to start the building of our first igloo. There's a good deal of difference of opinion as to the best implement with which to cut snow blocks. Cherry Gerard had a knife which I designed and Lashley made. Wilson a saw and Bowers a large trowel. I'm inclined to think the knife will prove most effective but the others don't acknowledge it yet. As far as one can see at present this knife should have a longer handle and much coarser teeth in the saw edge. Perhaps also the blade should be thinner. We must go on with this hut building till we get good at it. I'm sure it's going to be a useful art. We only did three courses of blocks when tea time arrived and light was not good enough to proceed after tea. Sunday afternoon for the men means a stretch of the land. I went over the flow on ski. The best possible surface after the late winds as far as inaccessible island. Here in doubtless and most places along the shore this the first week of June may be noted as the date by which the wet sticky salt crystals become covered and the surface possible for woodrunners. Beyond the island the snow is still very thin barely covering the ice flowers and the surface is still bad. There has been quite a small landslide on the south side of the island. Seven or eight blocks of rock one or two tons in weight have dropped onto the flow. An interesting instance of the possibility of transport by sea ice. Pontine has been out to the burbs photographing by flashlight. As I passed south of the island with its whole mass between myself and photographer I saw the flashes of magnesium light having all the appearance of lightning. The light illuminated the sky and apparently objects at a great distance from the camera. It is evident that there may be very great possibilities in the use of this light for signaling purposes and I propose to have some experiments. NB. Magnesium flashlight as signaling apparatus in the summer. Another caveater seal was secured today. He had come up by the burbs. Monday June 5th. The wind has been south all day. Sky overcast and air misty with snow crystals. The temperature is gone steadily up and tonight rose to plus 16 degree. Everything seems to threaten a blizzard which cometh not. But what is to be made of this extraordinary high temperature heaven only knows. Went for a walk over the rocks and found it very warm and muggy. Taylor gave us a paper on the Beardmore Glacier. He has taken pains to work up available information. On the eye side he showed the very gradual gradient as compared with the Farrar. If crevasses are as plentiful as reported the motion of glacier must be very considerable. There seem to be three badly crevasse parts where the glacier is constricted and the fall is heavier. Geologically he explained the rocks found and the problems unsolved. The basement rocks as to the north appear to be reddish and gray granites and altered slate possibly bearing fossils. The cloud maker appears to be diorite. Mount Buckley sedimentary. The suggested formation is of several layers of coal with sandstone above and below. Interesting to find if it is so and investigate coal. Wood fossil conifer appears to have come from this better to get leaves. Wrap fossils up for protection. Mount Dawson described his pinkish limestone with the wedge of dark rock. This very doubtful. Limestone is of great interest owing to chance of finding Cambrian fossils. Archaeosciathus. He mentioned the interest of finding here as in Dry Valley volcanic cones of recent date later than the recession of the ice. As points to be looked in geology and physiography. One, hope island shape. Two, character of wall faucets. Three, type of tributary glacier cliff or curtain broken. Four, due tributaries enter at grade. Five, lateral gullies pinnacle etc. shape in size of slope. Six, due tributaries cut out gullies empty unoccupied cirks, hangars etc. Seven, due upland moraines show tessellation. Eight, arrangement of strata inclusion of. Nine, types of moraines distance of blocks. Ten, weathering of glaciers types of surface thrust mark, rippled snow stool, glass house, coral wreath, honeycomb, plow share, bastions, pie crust. Eleven, amount of water silt bands stratified or irregular folded or broken. Twelve, cross section of valleys 35 degree slopes. Thirteen, weather slopes debris covered, height to which. Fourteen, nanotox, height of rounded, height of any angle in profile, erratics. Fifteen, evidence of order in glacier delta. Debenham in discussion mentioned usefulness of small chips of rock. Many chips from several places are more valuable than few larger specimens. We had an interesting little discussion. I must enter a protest against the use made of the word glaciated by geologists and physiographers. To them a glaciated land is one which appears to have been shaped by former ice action. The meaning I attached to the phrase, and one which I believe is more commonly current, is that it describes a land at present holy or partly covered with ice and snow. I hold the latter as the obvious meaning and the former results from a piracy committed in very recent times. The alternative terms descriptive of the different meanings are ice covered and ice eroded. Today I've been helping the soldier to design pony rugs. The great thing I think is to get something which will completely cover the hindquarters. Tuesday, June 6th. The temperature has been as high as plus 19 degree a day. The south wind persisted until the evening with clear sky except for fine effects of touring cloud round about the mountain. Tonight the moon has emerged from behind the mountain and sails across the cloudless northern sky. The wind has fallen and the scene is glorious. It is my birthday, a fact I might easily have forgotten, but my kind people did not. At lunch an immense birthday cake made its appearance and we were photographed assembled about it. Clusold had decorated its sugar top with various devices and chocolate and crystallized fruit, flags and photographs of myself. After my walk I discovered the great preparations were in progress for a special dinner and when the hour for that meal arrived we sat down to a sumptuous spread with our sledge banners hung about us. Clusold's especially excellent seal soup, roast mutton and red currant jelly, fruit salad, asparagus and chocolate. Such was our menu. For drink we had cider cup, a mystery not yet fathomed, some sherry and a liqueur. After this luxurious meal everyone was very festive and amably argumentative. As I write there is a group in the dark room discussing political progress with discussions, another at one corner of the dinner table airing its views on the origin of matter and the probability of its ultimate discovery and yet another debating military problems. The scraps that reach me from the various groups, sometimes pieced together in ludicrous fashion. Perhaps these arguments are practically unprofitable but they give a great deal of pleasure to the participants. It's delightful to hear the ring of triumph in some voice when the owner imagines he has delivered himself of a well-rounded period or a clinching statement concerning the point in discussion. There are boys, all of them, but such excellent, good-natured ones. There has been no sign of sharpness or anger, no jarring note in all these wordy contests, all end with a laugh. Nelson's offered Taylor a pair of socks to teach him some geology. This lulls me to sleep. Wednesday June 7th. A very beautiful day in the afternoon went well out over the flow to the south looking up Nelson at his icehole and picking up bowers at his thermometer. The surface was polished and beautifully smooth for ski. The scene brightly illuminated with moonlight. The air is still and crisp and the thermometer at minus 10 degree. Perfect conditions for a winter walk. In the evening I read a paper on the ice barrier and inland ice. I have strung together a good many new points and the interest taken in the discussion was very genuine so keen in fact that we did not break up till close on midnight. I am keeping this paper which makes a very good basis for all future work on these subjects. Sea volume two. Shelters to ice holes. Timeout of number one is coming across rediscoveries. Of such a nature is the building of shelters for ice holes. We knew a good deal about it in the discovery but unfortunately did not make notes of our experiences. I sketched the above figures for Nelson and found on going to the hole that the drift accorded with my sketch. The sketches explain themselves. I think wall B should be higher than wall A. My night on duty. The silent hours passed rapidly and comfortably to bed 7 a.m. Thursday June 8th. Do not turn out till 1 p.m. then with a bad head an inevitable sequel to a night of visual. Walked out to and around the bergs bright moonlight but clouds rapidly spreading up from south. Tried the snow knife which is developing. Devonham and Gran went off to Hut Point this morning. They should return tomorrow. Friday June 9th. No wind came with the clouds of yesterday but the sky has not been clear since they spread over it except for about two hours in the middle of the night. When the moonlight was so bright the one might have imagined the day returned. Otherwise the web of stratus which hangs over us thickens and thins rises and falls with very bewildering uncertainty. We want theories for these mysterious weather conditions. Meanwhile it is annoying to lose the advantages of the moonlight. The morning had some discussion with Nelson and Wright regarding the action of seawater and melting barrier and sea ice. The discussion was useful to me in drawing attention to the equilibrium of layers of seawater. In the afternoon I went round the razorback islands on ski. A run of five or six miles. The surface was good but in places still irregular with the pressures formed when the ice was young. The snow is astonishingly soft on the south side of both islands. It is clear that in the heaviest blizzard one could escape the wind altogether by camping to windward of a larger island. One sees more and more clearly what shelters afforded on the weather side of steep-sided objects. Past three seals asleep on the ice. Two others were killed near the bergs. Saturday June 10th. The impending blizzard has come. The wind came with the burst at 9.30 this morning. Simpson spent the night turning over theory to account for the phenomenon and delivered himself of it this morning. It seems a good basis for the reference of future observations. He imagines the atmosphere, AC, and potential equilibrium with large margin of stability i.e. the difference in the gradient between A and C being much less than the adiabatic gradient. In this condition there is a tendency to cool by radiation until some critical layer B reaches its dew point. A stratus cloud is thus formed at B. From this moment A B continues to cool but BC is protected from radiating whilst heated by radiation from snow and possibly by release of latent heat due to cloud formation. The condition now rapidly approaches unstable equilibrium BC tending to rise A B to descend. Owing to lack of sun heat the effect will be more rapid in south than north and therefore the upset will commence first in the south. After the first start the upset will rapidly spread north bringing the blizzard. The facts supporting the theory are the actual formation of a stratus cloud before a blizzard. The snow and warm temperature of the blizzard and its gusty nature. It is a pretty starting point but of course there are weak spots. Ac and sinus found a trypanosome in the fish. It has been stained photographed and drawn an interesting discovery having regard to the few species that have been found. A trypanosome is the cause of sleeping sickness. The blizzard has continued all day with a good deal of drift. I went for a walk but the conditions were not inviting. We have begun to consider details of next season's traveling equipment. The crampons Repaireth finesco and seal skin and an idea for a double tent have been discussed today. PO Evans and Lashley are delightfully intelligent in carrying out instructions. Sunday June 11th. A fine clear morning. The moon now revolving well loft and with full face. For exercise a run-on ski to the south bay in the morning and a dash up the ramp before dinner. Wind and drift arose in the middle of the day but it is now nearly calm again. At our morning service Cherry Garard, good fellow, vamped the accompaniment of two hymns. He received encouraging thanks and will cope with all three hymns next Sunday. Day by day news grows scant in this midwinter season. All events seem to compress into a small record yet a little reflection shows that this is not the case. For instance I have had at least three important discussions on weather and ice conditions today concerning which many notes might be made and quite a number of small arrangements have been made. If a diary can be so inadequate hear how difficult must be the task of making a faithful record of a day's events in ordinary civilized life. I think this is why I found it so difficult to keep a diary at home. Monday June 12th. The weather is not kind to us. There has not been much wind today but the moon has been hidden behind Stratus Cloud. One feels horribly cheated in losing the pleasure of its light. I scarcely know what the Crocierre party can do if they don't get better luck next month. Depp and Ham and Gran have not yet returned. This is their fifth day of absence. Bowers and Cherry Garard went to Cape Roids this afternoon to stay the night. Taylor and Wright walked there and back after breakfast this morning. They returned shortly after lunch. Went for a short spin on ski this morning and again this afternoon. This evening Evans has given us a lecture on surveying. He was shy and slow but very painstaking, taking a deal of trouble and preparing pictures etc. I took the opportunity to note hurriedly the few points to which I want attention, especially directed. No doubt others will occur to me presently. I think I now understand very well how and why the old surveyors, like Belcher, failed in the early Arctic work. One, every officer who takes part in the southern journey ought to have in his memory the approximate variation of the compass at various stages of the journey and to know how to apply it to obtain a true course from the compass. The variation changes very slowly so that no great effort of memory is required. Two, he ought to know what the true course is to reach one depot from another. Three, he should be able to take an observation with the atheodolite. Four, he should be able to work out a meridian altitude observation. Five, he could advantageously add to his knowledge the ability to work out a longitude observation or an ex meridian altitude. Six, he should know how to read the sledge meter. Seven, he should note and remember the error of the watch he carries and the rate which is ascertained for it from time to time. Eight, he should assist the surveyor by noting the coincidences of objects, the opening out of valleys, the observation of new peaks, etc. Footnote, these hints on polar surveying fell on willingers. Members of the after-guard who were not mathematically trained plunged into the very practical study of how to work out observations. Riding home on October 26, 1911, Scott remarks, Cherry has just come to me with a very anxious face to say that I must not count on his navigating powers. For the moment I didn't know what he was driving at, but then I remembered that some months ago I said that it would be a good thing for all the officers going south to have some knowledge of navigation so that in the emergency they would know how to steer a sledge home. It appears that Cherry thereupon commenced a serious and arduous course of study of obstruous navigational problems which he found exceedingly tough and now disparate mastering. Of course there is not one chance in a hundred that he will ever have to consider navigation on our journey and in that one chance the problem must be of the simplest nature, but it makes matters much easier for me to have men who take the details of one's work so seriously and who strive so simply and honestly to make it successful. And in Wilson's Diary for October 23, comes the entry. Working at latitude sites, mathematics, which I hate, till bedtime, it will be wiser to know a little navigation on the southern sledge journey. End of footnote. End of first part of chapter 11.


They said that this is the easiest part of life as students but we see that a lot of youngsters fall into the clutches of stress, depression and to cope with that they go into the addictions like alcohol, drug, porn, internet, etc. and they think that it will give them relief. I didn't know internet was along with the drugs. So, how to deal with them? Look at me, I am always stoned, never been on a substance. But you must understand, whatever stimulants, whatever stimulus you may take from outside, essentially human experience of all kinds is caused only from within. The question is only, are you on push start or are you on self start? Which is better, technologically, self start. So, if I teach you, suppose I teach you, that you can simply sit here and be totally blissed out, more stoned than anybody on the campus, at the same time you're fully aware. Would you go for it, hmm? Would you go for it? Fully stoned, fully conscious, would you go for it? See, the only problem with your alcohol, drugs, everything is not a moral issue. It is a life issue because it destroys life. It's not a morality that this is good, this is bad, that's not the point. The point is it makes you incapable in so many ways. There was a certain Israeli scientist who was researching on marijuana or cannabis. Over eighteen years, the U.S. drug and drug administration gave him large quantities of marijuana and he went on experimenting and eighteen years time he came up with really nothing significant and during mid-eighties, when American agencies were fighting drug on the street, they chained their policy of fighting the suppliers in Mexico and South America, they decided to fight on the street with the users.  Then he moved to Israel. The Israeli government looked at his work and they decided to give him big stocks of marijuana. And after another three-and-a-half, four years, he came up with this. He found that in the human brain, there are millions of cannabis receptors. Then he threw this question to various disciplines. Anthropologists tried to look at it and say, at some time in history, maybe every human being was smoking, that's why there are receptors. Then they said, this is rubbish because in many parts of the world it was not there. Even a Eskimo has cannabis receptors where he has never seen anything like this. Then various things happened and the neurologists came up with this. They said always the human brain is waiting for the cannabis, that which causes intoxication. Not waiting for it from outside, it can generate from within, that is why there are receptors. So this is something that we have always known. I can show you, I'm there always, but you look at my eyes, I'm always stoned. But as aware as anybody can be, if you do not know intoxication in life, you will never know a sense of abandon. If you don't have a sense of abandon, you will never walk full stride in your life. You will only walk half steps all the time. Only when there is no fear of suffering, because you're highly intoxicated and fully aware, not because you consume substances which will take away your awareness, simply because you're keeping the system, the human mechanism at its highest function. Now it is fully self-sufficient, blissed out all the time. Now you will not think of all these things.