orgot himself as to call Scott "Good old Truegg." Truegg was the
composition used by us for cooking in various ways omelets, buttered
eggs, puddings, and cakes of all kinds, and, although it was a great boon
to the Expedition, we had by this time tired of it. Still, we used it as
a term of endearment, but nobody in his sober senses would have dreamt of
calling our much respected Commander "Good old Truegg"; the brandy punch
must have been responsible for Clissold's mixing up of names! We had now
arrived at the stage when it was time to shut up, the officers became
interested in an aurora display and gradually rolled off to bed. It was
left to me to see the seamen turned in; they were good-humoured but
obstreperous, and not until 2 a.m. did silence and order once more reign
in the hut.

Very wisely our leader decided on June 23 being kept as a day of rest;
our digestions were upset and we took this time off to make and mend
clothes, and returned to our winter routine, a little subdued perhaps, on
June 24.

CHAPTER IX

PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS

So much for the winter life up to date; no great excitements, nothing
untoward, but a remarkable bonhomie obtaining in our little company
despite the tedium of so many days of winter gloom. On June 27 Dr. Wilson
with Bowers and Cherry-Garrard started on a remarkable journey to Cape
Crozier, nearly seventy miles distant from Cape Evans, via Hut Point and
the Barrier. The object of these intrepid souls was to observe the
incubation of the Emperor Penguins at their rookery, which was known to
exist near the junction point of the Barrier Edge with the rocky cliff
south of Cape Crozier. It must be borne in mind that this was the first
Antarctic midwinter journey, and that the three men must of necessity
face abnormally low temperature's and unheard of hardships whilst making
the sledge journey over the icy Barrier. We had gathered enough knowledge
on the autumn sledge journeys and in the days of the Discovery expedition
to tell us this, so that it was not without considerable misgivings that
Captain Scott permitted Wilson to carry the winter expedition to Cape
Crozier into being. The scope of my little volume only permits me to tell
this story in brief. No very detailed account has yet been published,
although Cherry-Garrard, the only survivor of the three, wrote the far
too modest memoir of the journey which has been published in Volume II of
"Scott's Last Expedition."