little more than two months with the sun below the horizon in fact.

There is a certain amount of quiet humour about Campbell's record; for
instance, he states that they used their "pram" or Norwegian skiff and
tried trawling for biological specimens on March 27--"our total catch was
one sea-louse, one sea-slug, and one spider."

It is very interesting to note that in March they had Aurora in which "an
arc of yellow stretched from N.W. to N.E., while a green and red curtain
extended from the N.W. horizon to the zenith."

The "pram" was Campbell's gift to the Expedition. He was always alive in
the matter of small boats and their uses, and he was the first to use
"kayaks" by making canvas boats to fit round the sledges; these were
light enough and might have well been used by us in the Main Party. Had
poor Mackintosh possessed one in Shackleton's last expedition he and his
companions would probably have saved themselves--if they had carried a
canvas cover on a sledge with them however it is always easy to be wise
after the event.

Levick's medical duties were very light indeed: they included the
stopping of one of Campbell's teeth, and the latter says, "As he had been
flensing a seal a few days before, his fingers tasted strongly of
blubber."

Priestly took charge of the meteorology for this station in addition to
his own special subjects. Abbott was the carpenter, Browning the
acetylene gas-man, and Dickason the cook and baker. With these ends in
view Mr. Archer had had Dickason in the galley on board during the
outward voyage.

This hut of theirs was stayed down with wire hawser on account of the
gales recorded by the "Southern Cross" Expedition.

The company's alarm clock, an invention of Browning's, deserves the
description taken from Campbell's diary: "We have felt the want of an
alarm clock, as in such a small party it seems undesirable that any one
should have to remain awake the whole night to take the 2-4 a.m.
observations, but Browning has come to the rescue with a wonderful
contrivance. It consists of a bamboo spring held back by a piece of
cotton rove through a candle which is marked off in hours. The other end
of the cotton is attached to the trigger of the gramophone, and whoever
takes the midnight observations winds the gramophone, 'sets' the cotton,
lights the candle, and turns the trumpet towards Priestley, who has to
turn out for the 2 a.m. At ten minutes to two the candle burns the thread
and re