“Saturday, June 8. The weather changes since the night before last have been, luckily for us, uncommon.  Thursday evening a strong northerly wind started with some drift, and this increased during the night until it blew over forty miles an hour, the temperature being -22 deg..  A strong wind from the north is rare, and generally is the prelude of a blizzard.  This northerly wind fell towards morning, and the day was calm and clear, the temperature falling until it was -33 deg. at 4 P.M.  The barometer had been abnormally low during the day, being only 28.24 at noon.  Then at 8 P.M. with the temperature at -36 deg., this blizzard broke, and at the same time there was a big upward jump of the barometer, which seemed to mark the beginning of the blizzard much more than the thermometer, which did not rise much.  The wind during the night was very high, blowing 72 and 66 miles an hour, for hours at a time, and has not yet shown any sign of diminishing.  Now, after lunch, the hut is straining and creaking, while a shower of stones rattles at intervals against it:  the drift is generally very heavy.”

“Sunday, June 9. The temperature has been higher, about zero, during the day, and the blizzard shows no signs of falling yet.  The gusts are still of a very high velocity.  A large quantity of ice to the north seems to have gone out:  at any rate our narrow strip along the front, which is so valuable to us, will probably be permanent now.”

“Monday, June 10. A most turbulent day.  It is very hard to settle down to do anything, read or write, with such a turmoil outside, the hut shaking until we begin to wonder how long it will stand such winds.  Most of the time the wind is averaging about sixty miles an hour, but the gusts are far greater, and at times it seems that something must go.  Just before lunch I was racking my brains to write an Editorial for the South Polar Times, and had congratulated ourselves on having the sea-ice which is still in North Bay.  As we were having lunch Nelson came in and said, ‘The thermometers have gone!’ All the ice in North Bay has gone.  The part immediately next to the shore, which has now been in so long, and which was over two feet thick, we had considered sure to stay.  On it has gone out the North Bay thermometer screen with its instruments, which was placed 400 yards out, the fish-trap, some shovels and a sledge with a crowbar.  The gusts were exceptionally strong at lunch, and the ice must have gone out very quickly.  There was no sign of it afterwards, though it was not drifting much and we could see some distance.  To lose this ice in North Bay is a great disappointment, for it means so much to us here whether we have ice or water at our doors.  We are now pretty well confined to the cape both for our own exercise and that of the mules, and in the dark it is very rough walking.  But if the ice in South Bay were to follow, it would be a calamity, cutting us off entirely from the south and all sledging next year.  Let us hope we shall be spared this.”