rise again the clouds disappear in a most wonderful way.

_November 8. Early morning._ Last night's twelve miles was quite cold for
the time of year, being -23 deg. at lunch and now -18 deg.. But it is calm, with
bright sun, and this temperature feels warm. However, there are some
frost-bites as a result, both Nelson and Hooper having swollen faces. The
same powder and crystals have been on the surface, but we have carried
the good Bluff surface so far, being now four miles beyond Bluff Depot.
This is fortunate, and to the best of my recollection we were already
getting on to a soft surface at this point last summer. If so there must
have been more wind here this year than last, which, according to the
winter we have had, seems probable.

We made up the Bluff Depot after lunch, putting up a new flag and
building up the cairn, leaving two cases of dog-biscuit for the returning
dog-teams. It is curious that the drift to leeward of the cairn, that is
N.N.E., was quite soft, the snow all round and the drifts on either side
being hard--exceptionally hard in fact. Why this drift should remain soft
when a drift in the same place is usually hard is difficult to explain.
All is happy in the mule camp. They have given Lal a drink of water and
he has started to eat, which is good news. Some of the mules seem
snow-blind, and they are now all wearing their blinkers. I have just
heard that Gran swung the thermometer at four this morning and found it
-29 deg.. Nelson's face is a sight--his nose a mere swollen lump,
frost-bitten cheeks, and his goggles have frosted him where the rims
touched his face. Poor Marie!

_November 9. Early morning._ Twelve more miles to the good, and we must
consider ourselves fortunate in still carrying on the same good surface,
which is almost if not quite as good as that of yesterday. This is the
only time I have ever seen a hard surface here, not more than fifteen
miles from One Ton, and it looks as if there had been much higher winds.
The sastrugi, which have been facing S.W., are now beginning to run a
little more westerly. I believe this to be quite a different wind
circulation from Ross Island, which as a whole gets its wind from the
Bluff. The Bluff is, I believe, the dividing line, though big general
blizzards sweep over the whole, irrespective of local areas of
circulation. This was amply corroborated by our journey out here last
autumn. Well, this is better than then--just round here we had a ful