The weather has been moderately good and as before wholly incomprehensible.  Wind has come from a clear sky and from a clouded one; we had a small blow on Tuesday but it never reached gale force; it came without warning, and every sign which we have regarded as a warning has proved a bogey.  The fact is, one must always be prepared for wind and never expect it.

The daylight advances in strides.  Day has fitted an extra sash to our window and the light admitted for the first time through triple glass.  With this device little ice collects inside.

The ponies are very fit but inclined to be troublesome:  the quiet beasts develop tricks without rhyme or reason.  Chinaman still kicks and squeals at night.  Anton’s theory is that he does it to warm himself, and perhaps there is something in it.  When eating snow he habitually takes too large a mouthful and swallows it; it is comic to watch him, because when the snow chills his inside he shuffles about with all four legs and wears a most fretful, aggrieved expression:  but no sooner has the snow melted than he seizes another mouthful.  Other ponies take small mouthfuls or melt a large one on their tongues—­this act also produces an amusing expression.  Victor and Snippets are confirmed wind suckers.  They are at it all the time when the manger board is in place, but it is taken down immediately after feeding time, and then they can only seek vainly for something to catch hold of with their teeth.  ‘Bones’ has taken to kicking at night for no imaginable reason.  He hammers away at the back of his stall merrily; we have covered the boards with several layers of sacking, so that the noise is cured, if not the habit.  The annoying part of these tricks is that they hold the possibility of damage to the pony.  I am glad to say all the lice have disappeared; the final conquest was effected with a very simple remedy—­the infected ponies were washed with water in which tobacco had been steeped.  Oates had seen this decoction used effectively with troop horses.  The result is the greater relief, since we had run out of all the chemicals which had been used for the same purpose.

I have now definitely told off the ponies for the Southern Journey, and the new masters will take charge on September 1.  They will continually exercise the animals so as to get to know them as well as possible.  The arrangement has many obvious advantages.  The following is the order: 

Bowers          Victor.      Evans (P.O.)        Snatcher. 
Wilson          Nobby.       Crean               Bones. 
Atkinson        Jehu.        Keohane             Jimmy Pigg. 
Wright          Chinaman.    Oates               Christopher. 
Cherry-Garrard  Michael.     Myself & Oates      Snippets.

The first balloon of the season was sent up yesterday by Bowers and Simpson.  It rose on a southerly wind, but remained in it for 100 feet or less, then for 300 or 400 feet it went straight up, and after