ost free of crevasses was chosen as the upward track to the
plateau. We threw in our weight hauling with the dogs, and had a long,
steep drag over furrowed neve, pitching the tent after a day's journey
of twelve miles.

On waking up on November 24 I found that my watch had stopped. I had
been so tired on the previous evening that I had fallen asleep without
remembering to wind it. The penalty of this accident was paid in my
being forced to take an extra set of observations in order to start the
watch again at correct time relative to the Hut.

Besides the observations for position, necessary for navigation, sets of
angles were taken from time to time to fix the positions of objects
of interest appearing within the field of view, while the magnetic
variation was obtained at intervals. In this work Ninnis always
assisted me. Mertz boiled the hypsometer when necessary to ascertain our
elevation above sea-level. The meteorological conditions were carefully
noted several times each day for future comparison with those of other
parties and of Winter Quarters.

The day's work on November 24 brought us high up on the slopes. Away to
the north-west Aurora Peak was still visible, standing up like a mighty
beacon pointing the way back to the Hut. Below lay the Mertz Glacier
extending out to sea as a floating tongue beyond the horizon. Inland,
some twenty miles to the south, it mounted up in seamed and riven
"cataracts" to a smooth, broad and shallow groove which wound into the
ice-cap. Ahead, on our south-east course, the ground still rose, but
to the north-east the ice-sheet fell away in long wide valleys, at the
extremity of some of which icebergs were visible frozen into distant
sea-ice.

The tent was raised at 10 P.M. in a forty-mile wind with light drift;
temperature 10 degrees F. The altitude of this camp was two thousand
three hundred and fifty feet.

One of the worst features of drift overnight is that sledges and dogs
become buried in snow and have to be dug out in the morning. Thus on
the 25th it was 10 A.M. before we got away in a strong wind, with flying
snow, across fields of sastrugi.

The dogs detested the wind and, as their heads were so near the
ground, they must have found the incessant stream of thick drift very
tantalizing. The snow became caked over their eyes so that every few
minutes they had to scrape it away with their paws or rub their faces on
the ground.

We stopped at 6 P.M. after a miserable