mained there, though the tide was ebbing and a strong southerly was
blowing."[282] Incidentally the bergs which were grounded in our
neighbourhood were shifted and broken about considerably by these high
winds: also the meteorological screen placed on the Ramp the year before
was broken from its upright, which had snapped in the middle, and must
have been taken up into the air and so out to sea, for there was no trace
of it to be found: Wright lost two doors placed over the entrance to the
magnetic cave: when he lifted them they were taken out of his hands by
the wind, and disappeared into the air and were never seen again.

[Illustration: NORTH BAY AND THE BARNE GLACIER]

So ready was the sea to freeze that there can be little doubt that it
already contained large numbers of ice crystals, and time and again I
have stood upon the ice-foot watching the tongues of the winds licking up
the waters as they roared their way out to sea. Then, with no warning,
there would come, suddenly and completely, a lull. And there would be a
film of ice, covering the surface of the sea, come so quickly that all
you could say was that it was not there before and it was there now. And
then down would come the wind again and it was gone. Once when the winter
had gone and daylight had returned I stood upon the end of the cape, the
air all calm around me, and there, half-a-mile away, a full blizzard was
blowing: the islands, and even the berg between Inaccessible Island
and the cape, were totally obscured in the thickest drift: the top of the
drift, which was very distinct, thinned to show dimly the crest of
Inaccessible Island: Turk's Head was visible and Erebus quite clear. In
fact I was just on the edge of a thick blizzard, blowing down the Strait,
the side showing as a perpendicular wall about 500 feet high and
travelling, I should say, about 40 miles an hour. A roar came out from it
of the wind and waves.

The weather conditions were extraordinarily local, as another experience
will show. Atkinson and Dimitri were off to Hut Point with the dogs,
carrying biscuit and pemmican for the coming Search Journey: I went with
them some way, and then left them to place a flag upon the end of Glacier
Tongue for surveying purposes. It was clear and bright, and it was easy
to get a sketch of the bearings of the islands from this position, which
showed how great a portion of the Tongue must have broken off in the
autumn of 1911. I anticipated a pleasa