ifty
miles. Sixty-five miles for nothing! How far for the other forty-nine
minutes which were needed for a vertical dip and the South Magnetic
Pole? This problem was insoluble, so each toggled himself into his bag
in a rather depressed state of mind.

December 16 was a glorious day; only a fifteen-mile wind, and for ten
miles an improved surface. There was no drift, consequently opportunity
was taken to turn the sleeping bags inside out. They needed it, too. The
upper parts were not so bad as they had been propped open occasionally,
but the lower halves were coated with solid ice. For the first time for
weeks we did not wear burberrys, as the weather was so warm. Fourteen
miles was the total work, the previous day's being twelve.

All three of us were having trouble with snow-blindness; the "zinc and
cocaine" tabloids being in great demand.

Latitude 70 degrees south was passed on the 17th and we were another
fourteen miles to the good. The dip was on the increase 89 degrees 25'
and the declination swung to 40 degrees east of the magnetic meridian.
At two hundred and fifty-six miles the altitude was five thousand five
hundred feet.

The temperature was getting lower; the minimum being -21 degrees F.
on the night of the 17th, rising to a maximum of 3 degrees F. on the
following day.

There was dead calm and a regular heat wave on December 19. As the sun
rose higher and higher, the tent became absolutely oppressive. The rime
coating the walls inside thawed and water actually trickled into our
finnesko. Usually we awoke to find them frozen hard, just as we had
shaped them on the previous night, but on this particular morning they
were pathetically limp and wet. The temperature inside the tent was 66
degrees F., heated, of course, by the sun's rays which raised our black
bulb thermometer to 105 degrees F. We were not used to this sort of
thing and struggled out hurriedly for a breath of fresh air.

Once into harness, we began to feel the effects of exertion. By degrees
we got rid of our clothing, but unfortunately soon came to bedrock in
that respect, as the underclothing was sewn on and immovable. At lunch
time, with the thermometer at -2 degrees F. in the shade, we reluctantly
dressed knowing how soon we would cool off. About 9 P.M. clouds moved
over rapidly from the south-east and the landscape faded into the blank,
shadowless nothing of an overcast day. The camp was pitched at two
hundred and eighty-three miles a