WINTER MONTHS

The month of March opened with a severe north-easterly gale.  Five Weddells and two crab-eaters were shot on the floe during the morning of March 1, and the wind, with fine drifting snow, sprang up while the carcasses were being brought in by sledging parties.  The men were compelled to abandon some of the blubber and meat, and they had a struggle to get back to the ship over the rough ice in the teeth of the storm.  This gale continued until the 3rd, and all hands were employed clearing out the ’tween decks, which was to be converted into a living-and dining-room for officers and scientists.  The carpenter erected in this room the stove that had been intended for use in the shore hut, and the quarters were made very snug.  The dogs appeared indifferent to the blizzard.  They emerged occasionally from the drift to shake themselves and bark, but were content most of the time to lie, curled into tight balls, under the snow.  One of the old dogs, Saint, died on the night of the 2nd, and the doctors reported that the cause of death was appendicitis.

When the gale cleared we found that the pack had been driven in from the north-east and was now more firmly consolidated than before.  A new berg, probably fifteen miles in length, had appeared on the northern horizon.  The bergs within our circle of vision had all become familiar objects, and we had names for some of them.  Apparently they were all drifting with the pack.  The sighting of a new berg was of more than passing interest, since in that comparatively shallow sea it would be possible for a big berg to become stranded.  Then the island of ice would be a centre of tremendous pressure and disturbance amid the drifting pack.  We had seen something already of the smashing effect of a contest between berg and floe, and had no wish to have the helpless ‘Endurance’ involved in such a battle of giants.  During the 3rd the seal meat and blubber was re-stowed on hummocks around the ship.  The frozen masses had been sinking into the floe.  Ice, though hard and solid to the touch, is never firm against heavy weights.  An article left on the floe for any length of time is likely to sink into the surface-ice.  Then the salt water will percolate through and the article will become frozen into the body of the floe.

Clear weather followed the gale, and we had a series of mock suns and parhelia.  Minus temperatures were the rule, 21° below zero Fahr. being recorded on the 6th.  We made mattresses for the dogs by stuffing sacks with straw and rubbish, and most of the animals were glad to receive this furnishing in their kennels.  Some of them had suffered through the snow melting with the heat of their bodies and then freezing solid.  The scientific members of the expedition were all busy by this time.  The meteorologist had got his recording station, containing anemometer, barograph, and thermograph, rigged over the stern.  The geologist was making the best