“February 8, Mt.  Buckley Cliffs. A very busy day.  We had a very cold forenoon march, blowing like blazes from the S. Birdie detached and went on ski to Mt.  Darwin and collected some dolerite, the only rock he could see on the Nunatak, which was nearest.  We got into a sort of crusted surface where the snow broke through nearly to our knees and the sledge-runner also.  I thought at first we were all on a thinly bridged crevasse.  We then came on east a bit, and gradually got worse and worse going over an ice-fall, having great trouble to prevent sledge taking charge, but eventually got down and then made N.W. or N. into the land, and camped right by the moraine under the great sandstone cliffs of Mt.  Buckley, out of the wind and quite warm again:  it was a wonderful change.  After lunch we all geologized on till supper, and I was very late turning in, examining the moraine after supper.  Socks, all strewn over the rocks, dried splendidly.  Magnificent Beacon sandstone cliffs.  Masses of limestone in the moraine, and dolerite crags in various places.  Coal seams at all heights in the sandstone cliffs, and lumps of weathered coal with fossil vegetable.  Had a regular field-day and got some splendid things in the short time.”

“February 9, Moraine visit. We made our way along down the moraine, and at the end of Mt.  Buckley [I] unhitched and had half an hour over the rocks and again got some good things written up in sketch-book.  We then left the moraine and made a very good march on rough blue ice all day with very small and scarce scraps of neve, on one of which we camped for the night with a rather overcast foggy sky, which cleared to bright sun in the night.  We are all thoroughly enjoying temps. of +10 deg. or thereabouts now, with no wind instead of the summit winds which are incessant with temp. -20 deg..”

“February 10. ?16 m.  We made a very good forenoon march from 10 to 2.45 towards the Cloudmaker.  Weather overcast gradually obscured everything in snowfall fog, starting with crystals of large size....  We had to camp after 21/2 hours’ afternoon march as it got too thick to see anything and we were going downhill on blue ice...."[335]

[Illustration:  BUCKLEY ISLAND—­E.  A. Wilson, del.  Emery Walker Limited, Collotypers.]

The next day in bad lights and on a bad surface they fell into the same pressure which both the other returning parties experienced.  Like them they were in the middle of it before they realized.  “Then came the fatal decision to steer east.  We went on for 6 hours, hoping to do a good distance, which I suppose we did, but for the last hour or two we pressed on into a regular trap.  Getting on to a good surface we did not reduce our lunch meal, and thought all going well, but half an hour after lunch we got into the worst ice mess I have ever been in.  For three hours we plunged on on ski, first thinking we were too much to the right, then too much to the