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 a 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.

Monday, May 22.—­Wilson, Bowers, Atkinson, Evans (P.O.), Clissold, and self went to C. Royds with a ‘go cart’ carrying our sleeping-bags, a cooker, and a small quantity of provision.

The ‘go cart’ consists of a framework of steel tubing supported on four bicycle wheels.

The surface of the floes carries 1 to 2 inches of snow, barely covering the salt ice flowers, and for this condition this vehicle of Day’s is excellent.  The advantage is that it meets the case where the salt crystals form a heavy frictional surface for wood runners.  I’m 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 Royds in 2 1/2 hours, killing an Emperor penguin in the bay beyond C. Barne.  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.  Clissold started the cooking-range, Wilson and I walked over to the Black beach and round back by Blue Lake.

The temperature was down at -31 deg. and the interior of the hut was very cold.

Tuesday, May 23.—­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 a very useful reserve to fall back upon.  These stores are somewhat scattered, and the hut has a dilapidated, comfortless appearance due to its tenantless condition; but even so it seemed to me much less inviting than our old Discovery hut at C. 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.