Otherwise, the signs of bird life were very few.  One or two solitary snowy petrels circled round the summit while we were there; that was all.

It was highly important to obtain some successful photographs from this spot, and I was setting about the necessary preparations, when one of my companions made a remark about the changed appearance of the sky.  Busy with other things, I had entirely neglected to keep an eye on the weather, an omission for which, as will be seen, we might have had to pay dearly.  Fortunately, another had been more watchful than I, and the warning came in time.  A glance was enough to convince me of the imminent approach of a snow-storm; the fiery red sky and the heavy ring round the sun spoke a language that was only too clear.  We had a good hour’s march to the tent, and the possibility of being surprised by the storm before we arrived was practically equivalent to never arriving at all.

We very soon put our things together, and came down the nunatak even more quickly.  On the steep slopes leading up to the plateau on which the tent stood the pace was a good deal slower, though we made every possible effort to hurry.  There was no need to trouble about the course; we had only to follow the trail of our own ski —­ so long as it was visible.  But the drift was beginning to blot it out, and if it once did that, any attempt at finding the tent would be hopeless.  For a long and anxious quarter of an hour it looked as if we should be too late, until at last the tent came in sight, and we were saved.  We had escaped the blizzard so far; a few minutes later it burst in all its fury, and the whirling snow was so thick that it would have been impossible to see the tent at a distance of ten paces, but by then we were all safe and sound inside.  Ravenously hungry after the twelve hours that had passed since our last proper meal, we cooked an extra large portion of pemmican and the same of chocolate, and with this sumptuous repast we celebrated the event of the day —­ the discovery of land.  From what we had seen in the course of the day it might be regarded as certain that we should be disappointed in our hopes of finding any great and interesting field for our labours in this quarter; King Edward Land was still far too well hidden under eternal snow and ice to give us that.  But even the establishment of this, to us, somewhat unwelcome fact marked an increase of positive human knowledge of the territory that bears the name of King Edward VII.; and with the geological specimens that we had collected, we were in possession of a tangible proof of the actual existence of solid ground in a region which otherwise bore the greatest resemblance to what we called “Barrier” elsewhere, or in any case to the Barrier as it appears in the neighbourhood of our winter-quarters at Framheim.

Monday, December 4. —­ The gale kept on at full force all night, and increased rather than moderated as the day advanced.  As usual, the storm was accompanied by a very marked rise of temperature.  At the noon observation to-day the reading was + 26.6deg.  F. This is the highest temperature we have had so far on this trip, and a good deal higher than we care about.  When the mercury comes so near freezing-point as this, the floor of the tent is always damp.