Usual Sunday routine.  Quiet day except for a good deal of wind off and on.  The Crozier Party must be having a wretched time.

Monday, July 17.—­The weather still very unsettled—­the wind comes up with a rush to fade in an hour or two.  Clouds chase over the sky in similar fashion:  the moon has dipped during daylight hours, and so one way and another there is little to attract one out of doors.

Yet we are only nine days off the ‘light value’ of the day when we left off football—­I hope we shall be able to recommence the game in that time.

I am glad that the light is coming for more than one reason.  The gale and consequent inaction not only affected the ponies, Ponting is not very fit as a consequence—­his nervous temperament is of the quality to take this wintering experience badly—­Atkinson has some difficulty in persuading him to take exercise—­he managed only by dragging him out to his own work, digging holes in the ice.  Taylor is another backslider in the exercise line and is not looking well.  If we can get these people to run about at football all will be well.  Anyway the return of the light should cure all ailments physical and mental.

Tuesday, July 18.—­A very brilliant red sky at noon to-day and enough light to see one’s way about.

This fleeting hour of light is very pleasant, but of course dependent on a clear sky, very rare.  Went round the outer berg in the afternoon; it was all I could do to keep up with ‘Snatcher’ on the homeward round—­speaking well for his walking powers.

Wednesday, July 19.—­Again calm and pleasant.  The temperature is gradually falling down to -35 deg..  Went out to the old working crack [26] north of Inaccessible Island—­Nelson and Evans had had great difficulty in rescuing their sounding sledge, which had been left near here before the gale.  The course of events is not very clear, but it looks as though the gale pressed up the crack, raising broken pieces of the thin ice formed after recent opening movements.  These raised pieces had become nuclei of heavy snow drifts, which in turn weighing down the floe had allowed water to flow in over the sledge level.  It is surprising to find such a big disturbance from what appears to be a simple cause.  This crack is now joined, and the contraction is taking on a new one which has opened much nearer to us and seems to run to C. Barne.

We have noticed a very curious appearance of heavenly bodies when setting in a north-westerly direction.  About the time of midwinter the moon observed in this position appeared in a much distorted shape of blood red colour.  It might have been a red flare or distant bonfire, but could not have been guessed for the moon.  Yesterday the planet Venus appeared under similar circumstances as a ship’s side-light or Japanese lantern.  In both cases there was a flickering in the light and a change of colour from deep orange yellow to blood red, but the latter was dominant.