ively calm period of the two weeks of
travelling. The wind was in the vicinity of thirty miles per hour, and,
going west, we reached a spot, twenty miles 'out,' on a snow-covered
surface, by nightfall.

"A steady seventy-five-mile wind blew all day on the 15th at right
angles to our course, accompanied by a thick, low drift. The surface was
partially consolidated snow, very hard and smooth. Sometimes the sledge
would grip and we could pull straight ahead. Then, suddenly, it would
slide away sideways down wind and often pull us off our feet with
a sudden vicious jerk. Most of the time we were dragging in a
south-westerly direction to make the sledge run west, stumbling through
the drift with the sledge now behind us, now sliding away to leeward,
often capsizing and requiring to be laboriously righted and sometimes
repacked.

"After many experiments, we found the best device was to have two men
on the bow-rope, about twenty feet long, and one with about ten feet
of rope attached to the rear of the sledge. The man on the tail-rope,
usually Whetter, found it very difficult to keep his feet, and, after a
score of falls in stinging drift with incidental frost-bites on fingers
and cheeks, he did not feel exactly cheerful.

"By 4 P.M. on the 15th we had reached twenty-five miles and were
exhausted. We pitched camp at an early hour, partly influenced by the
fact that it was a special occasion--Close's birthday! Some port wine
had been slipped in to provide against that 'emergency.' On taking the
precious bottle from the instrument-box, I found that the cork was out,
and, for one awful moment, thought the bottle was empty. Then I realized
that the wine had frozen solid and had pushed the cork out by its
expansion on solidification.

"At last, the tent safely pitched and hoosh and cocoa finished, the
moment came to drink to Close's health and happiness. The bottle had
stood on the top of the cooker while the meal was being prepared, but
the wine was still as solid as ever. After being shaken and held over
the primus for a good half-hour it began to issue in lumps. Once the
lumps were secured in mugs the rest of the thawing was easy. Finally, we
toasted Close and his wife (in far Australia) in what we voted to be
the finest draught it had ever been our good fortune to drink. In the
morning a cairn was made of the snow-blocks which were taken from
the tent-skirt, and it was surmounted with the bottle, being called
'Birthday Cam