We are on the 86th parallel.  Obs.:  86 deg. 2’ S.; 160 deg. 26’ E. The temperature has been pretty consistent of late, -10 deg. to -12 deg. at night, -3 deg. in the day.  The wind has seemed milder to-day—­it blows anywhere from S.E. to south.  I had thought to have done with pressures, but to-night a crevassed slope appears on our right.  We shall pass well clear of it, but there may be others.  The undulating character of the plain causes a great variety of surface, owing, of course, to the varying angles at which the wind strikes the slopes.  We were half an hour late starting this morning, which accounts for some loss of distance, though I should be content to keep up an average of 13’ (geo.).

Wednesday, December 27.—­Lunch.  Bar. 21.02.  The wind light this morning and the pulling heavy.  Everyone sweated, especially the second team, which had great difficulty in keeping up.  We have been going up and down, the up grades very tiring, especially when we get amongst sastrugi which jerk the sledge about, but we have done 7 1/4 miles (geo.).  A very bad accident this morning.  Bowers broke the only hypsometer thermometer.  We have nothing to check our two aneroids.

Night camp 49.  Bar. 20.82.  T. -6.3 deg..  We marched off well after lunch on a soft, snowy surface, then came to slippery hard sastrugi and kept a good pace; but I felt this meant something wrong, and on topping a short rise we were once more in the midst of crevasses and disturbances.  For an hour it was dreadfully trying—­had to pick a road, tumbled into crevasses, and got jerked about abominably.  At the summit of the ridge we came into another ‘pit’ or ‘whirl,’ which seemed the centre of the trouble—­is it a submerged mountain peak?  During the last hour and a quarter we pulled out on to soft snow again and moved well.  Camped at 6.45, having covered 13 1/3 miles (geo.).  Steering the party is no light task.  One cannot allow one’s thoughts to wander as others do, and when, as this afternoon, one gets amongst disturbances, I find it is very worrying and tiring.  I do trust we shall have no more of them.  We have not lost sight of the sun since we came on the summit; we should get an extraordinary record of sunshine.  It is monotonous work this; the sledgemeter and theodolite govern the situation.

Thursday, December 28.—­Lunch.  Bar. 20.77.  I start cooking again to-morrow morning.  We have had a troublesome day but have completed our 13 miles (geo.).  My unit pulled away easy this morning and stretched out for two hours—­the second unit made heavy weather.  I changed with Evans and found the second sledge heavy—­could keep up, but the team was not swinging with me as my own team swings.  Then I changed P.O.  Evans for Lashly.  We seemed to get on better, but at the moment the surface changed and we came up over a rise with hard sastrugi.  At the top we camped for lunch.  What was the difficulty?  One theory was that some members of the second party