direction of the upper currents of air
might be instantly noted, and the condition of activity did not differ
materially from that observed in Stromboli. When the barometer was low
the steam column was heavier and denser; the glow of light was also
brighter. With a high barometer, on the contrary, the conditions were
reversed, the steam column was insignificant and the glow was scarcely
visible. As a rule, the ascending column of steam was projected three
thousand feet or more before it was caught by the upper air current.
Measurements showed the principal crater to be half a mile in diameter
and nine hundred feet deep. Great deposits of sulphur and pumice were
observed.

In the last week of October a party composed of Shackleton, Adams,
Marshall, and Wild started on the trip to discover the south pole. The
journey to the point farthest south occupied seventy-three days. After a
few days out from the winter quarters no bare rock was seen--the
landscape being one of ice and snow.

Shackleton's journal of January 8 notes the fierce gales blowing at the
rate of seventy or eighty miles an hour, while the temperature had
dropped to "seventy-two degrees of frost." "We are short of fuel," he
writes, "and at this high altitude, eleven thousand six hundred feet, it
is hard to keep any warmth in our bodies between the scanty meals. We
have nothing to read now, having left behind our little books to save
weight, and it is dreary work lying in the tent with nothing to read,
and too cold to write much in the diary."

"It (January 9, 1909) is our last day outward. We have shot our bolt and
the tale of latitude is 88 deg. 23' south. We hoisted her majesty's flag,
and the other Union Jack afterward, and took possession of the plateau
in the name of his majesty. While the Union Jack blew out stiffly in the
icy gale that cut us to the bone we looked south with powerful glasses,
but could see nothing but the dead white snow-plain. There was no break
in the plateau as it extended toward the pole, and we felt sure that the
goal we have failed to reach lies on this plain. We stayed only a few
minutes, and then taking the queen's flag, and eating our scanty meal as
we went, hurried back and reached our camp about 3 P. M. Whatever
regrets may be, we have done our best." On their return journey the
party killed the two surviving ponies for food.

Early in October, 1908, a party consisting of David, Mawson, and Mackay
started on their journe