ined by artistic
enthusiasm. This world of ours is a different one to him than it is
to the rest of us--he gauges it by its picturesqueness--his joy is to
reproduce its pictures artistically, his grief to fail to do so. No
attitude could be happier for the work which he has undertaken, and one
cannot doubt its productiveness. I would not imply that he is out of
sympathy with the works of others, which is far from being the case,
but that his energies centre devotedly on the minutiae of his business.

Cherry-Garrard is another of the open-air, self-effacing, quiet
workers; his whole heart is in the life, with profound eagerness
to help everyone. 'One has caught glimpses of him in tight places;
sound all through and pretty hard also.' Indoors he is editing our
Polar journal, out of doors he is busy making trial stone huts and
blubber stoves, primarily with a view to the winter journey to Cape
Crozier, but incidentally these are instructive experiments for any
party which may get into difficulty by being cut off from the home
station. It is very well to know how best to use the scant resources
that nature provides in these regions. In this connection I have
been studying our Arctic library to get details concerning snow hut
building and the implements used for it.

Oates' whole heart is in the ponies. He is really devoted to their
care, and I believe will produce them in the best possible form for the
sledging season. Opening out the stores, installing a blubber stove,
&c., has kept _him_ busy, whilst his satellite, Anton, is ever at
work in the stables--an excellent little man.

Evans and Crean are repairing sleeping-bags, covering felt boots,
and generally working on sledging kit. In fact there is no one idle,
and no one who has the least prospect of idleness.

_Saturday, May_ 6.--Two more days of calm, interrupted with occasional
gusts.

Yesterday, Friday evening, Taylor gave an introductory lecture on
his remarkably fascinating subject--modern physiography.

These modern physiographers set out to explain the forms of
land erosion on broad common-sense lines, heedless of geological
support. They must, in consequence, have their special language. River
courses, they say, are not temporary--in the main they are archaic. In
conjunction with land elevations they have worked through _geographical
cycles_, perhaps many. In each geographical cycle they have advanced
from _infantile_ V-shaped forms; the courses broaden a