We slept badly till the morning and, therefore, late. After breakfast we went up the hills; there was a keen S.E. breeze, but the sun shone and my spirits revived. There was very much less snow everywhere than I had ever seen. The ski run was completely cut through in two places, the Gap and Observation Hill almost bare, a great bare slope on the side of Arrival Heights, and on top of Crater Heights an immense bare table-land. How delighted we should have been to see it like this in the old days! The pond was thawed and the confervae green in fresh water. The hole which we had dug in the mound in the pond was still there, as Meares discovered by falling into it up to his waist and getting very wet.

On the south side we could see the Pressure Ridges beyond Pram Point as of old – Horseshoe Bay calm and unpressed – the sea ice pressed on Pram Point and along the Gap ice foot, and a new ridge running around C. Armitage about 2 miles off. We saw Ferrar’s old thermometer tubes standing out of the snow slope as though they’d been placed yesterday. Vince’s cross might have been placed yesterday – the paint was so fresh and the inscription so legible.

The flagstaff was down, the stays having carried away, but in five minutes it could be put up again. We loaded some asbestos sheeting from the old magnetic hut on our sledges for Simpson, and by standing 1/4 mile off Hut Point got a clear run to Glacier Tongue. I had hoped to get across the wide crack by going west, but found that it ran for a great distance and had to get on the glacier at the place at which we had left it. We got to camp about teatime. I found our larder in the grotto completed and stored with mutton and penguins – the temperature inside has never been above 27º, so that it ought to be a fine place for our winter store. Simpson has almost completed the differential magnetic cave next door. The hut stove was burning well and the interior of the building already warm and homelike – a day or two and we shall be occupying it.
I took Ponting out to see some interesting thaw effects on the ice cliffs east of the Camp. I noted that the ice layers were pressing out over thin dirt bands as though the latter made the cleavage lines over which the strata slid.

It has occurred to me that although the sea ice may freeze in our bays early in March it will be a difficult thing to get ponies across it owing to the cliff edges at the side. We must therefore be prepared to be cut off for a longer time than I anticipated. I heard that all the people who journeyed towards C. Royds yesterday reached their destination in safety. Campbell, Levick, and Priestley had just departed when I returned.

“Penguins making for the water. Jan. 16th 1911.”

“The Terra Nova and a berg at ice-foot. Jan. 16th 1911.”

“The Terra Nova and a berg at ice-foot. Jan. 16th 1911.”

“The Terra Nova and a berg at ice-foot. Jan. 16th 1911.”

“The Terra Nova and a berg at ice-foot. Jan. 16th 1911.”

“The Terra Nova and a berg at ice-foot. Jan. 16th 1911.”

“Loading sledges by the “Terra Nova””

This entry was posted on Monday, January 16th, 1911 at 8:51 pm and is filed under Chapter IV: Settling In. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.