midst a jumble of ramps and sastrugi.
The dip had seen fit to rise to 89 degrees 35'.

In the morning the wind was doing thirty miles per hour, which certainly
seemed to be the normal thing. It fell to a nice sailing breeze, but,
at the time, we were not very appreciative of anything as the course
was uphill. Again, it was to be the last day's run, so we were "all out"
when the halt came after a good fifteen miles--the longest day's march
on the outward journey. Nevertheless, Webb unpacked the theodolite after
hoosh and took an altitude of the sun at midnight.

On December 21 the load on the sledge was stripped down to tent,
dip-circle, theodolite, cooker and a little food. For two and a half
miles we went south-east over rising ground until the sledge-meter
showed three hundred and one miles.

While Hurley and I pitched the tent, Webb built a breakwind for his
instrument fifty yards away. Then followed a long set of magnetic
observations. About 5 P.M. the magnetic work was interrupted; the
theodolite replacing the dip-circle on the legs, while I took a
longitude shot. I was seeing double, being slightly snow-blind, and had
some difficulty in choosing the correct combination from the assortment
of suns and cross-wires visible in the telescope. Setting the vertical
and horizontal wires simultaneously on the sun was beyond me; Webb
taking the observations for the true meridian, which also checked my
longitude shot.

Magnetic work under these conditions is an extremely uncomfortable
operation. Even a light wind will eddy round the break-wind, and it is
wind which makes low temperatures formidable. Nearly all the work has to
be done with bare fingers or thin instrument-gloves, and the time
taken is far greater than in temperate climates, owing to the fingers
constantly "going" and because of the necessity of continually freeing
the instrument from the condensed moisture of the breath. Considering
that the temperature was -12 degrees F. when he had finished his four
hours' work, it may be imagined that Webb was ready for his hot tea. The
dip proved to be 89 degrees 43.5', that is, sixteen and a half minutes
from the vertical. The altitude was just over five thousand nine hundred
feet, in latitude 70 degrees 36.5' south and longitude 148 degrees 10'
east.

After lunch the Union Jack and the Commonwealth Ensign were hoisted and
three cheers given for the King--willing but rather lonesome away out
there! We searched the h