The contrast between the goggled and the ungoggled state was extraordinary—­when one lifted one’s orange-tinted snow glasses it was to find a blaze of light that could scarcely be endured.  Snow-blindness gave one much the same sensations as those experienced by standing over a smoking bonfire keeping eyes open.

Sunday, December 17, differed from the preceding days, for we got into huge pressure ridges—­we hauled our sledges up these and tobogganed down the other sides, progressing half the forenoon thus.  We wore our excellent crampons and made lighter work of our loads than we had done since facing the Beardmore, and now that the summer season was well advanced the surface snow on the Glacier had mostly disappeared through the effects of the all day sun added to the early summer winds.  The clouding of our goggles made the crevasses more difficult to spot, and one or other of the party got legs or feet down pretty often.

This and the following day were precursors to good marches and easy times.  We made the Mid-Glacier Depot in Latitude 84 degrees 33 minutes 6 seconds S., Longitude 169 degrees 22 minutes 2 seconds E., and set therein one half-week’s provision.  We marked the depot cairn with bamboo and red flag to show up against the ice as well as to contrast with the land.  Hitherto only black flags had been employed to mark depots.

The weather and surface were both in our favour at last.  It was sunny, warm, and clear now, and there was nothing to impede us.  Wilson did a large amount of sketching on the Beardmore—­his sketches, besides being wonderful works of art, helped us very much in our surveys.

Fringing the great glittering river of ice were dark granite and dolerite hills, some were snow-clad and some quite bare, for their steepness resisted the white cloak of this freezing clime.  The new hills were surveyed, headlands plotted, and names bestowed where Shackleton had not already done so.  Of course we had Shackleton’s charts, diaries, and experience to help us.  We often discussed Shackleton’s journey, and were amazed at his fine performance.  We always had full rations, which Shackleton’s party never enjoyed at this stage.  After December 17 our marches worked up from 13 to 23 miles a day.

Shackleton bestowed the name of Queen Alexandra Range on the huge mountains to the westward of the Beardmore.

The most conspicuous is the “Cloudmaker,” which he gives as 9.971—­I like the 1 foot when heights are so hard to determine hereabouts!  To the three secondary ranges, on the S.W. extreme of the Beardmore, nearly in 85 degrees, he gave the names Adams, Marshall, and Wild, after his three companions on the farthest South march.  To get into one’s head what we had to look at on the upper half of the Beardmore, imagine a moderate straight slope:  this is the Glacier like a giant road, white except where the sun has melted the snow and bared the blue ice.  Looking up the Glacier an overhang of ice-falls