ght and carried home with
them. He was of the usual tabby colour and by no means fierce, quickly
yielding to the coaxing treatment of his captors. He made himself quite
at home in the Shack, and we looked forward to a display of his prowess
as a rat-catcher.

A bright display of the aurora occurred on the night of July 4, the
ribbons and streamers of light being well defined and occasionally
slightly coloured. We could establish no connexion between this
extraordinary outburst and the fact that it occurred on American
Independence night, but it was certainly the most energetic
manifestation of the phenomenon we had so far witnessed. Many "glows"
had been seen, and also a few displays of the arch-shaped form, but none
had shown much activity or rapid movement.

The operator was requested by the Pennant Hills high-power wireless
station at Sydney to listen for signals tapped out during the daytime,
and Sawyer spent a couple of hours on certain mornings assisting in
these tests, which were attended with some success. We occasionally
received press news from land stations or from ships passing across the
Tasman Sea, but it was only a brief summary of the cable news: enough to
whet one's curiosity, rarely ever satisfying it.

Very cold, rough weather was experienced on the 6th and 7th and a
temperature of 26 degrees F. occurred on the latter date, while the
maximum did not reach freezing-point. Much snow and soft hail fell,
and the ground set hard. The weather interfered to some extent with
the tide-gauge clock, and it became so unsatisfactory that I took it to
pieces on the 9th and gave it a thorough cleaning, after which it had a
new lease of life.

We received a message on the 11th saying that the 'Aurora' had arrived
in Dunedin, "all well," but had experienced a very rough voyage which
greatly interfered with the dredging and sounding programme.

Our tank water gave out for the first time on the 12th. The
precipitation for a fortnight had been in the form of dry powdery snow
and soft hail, the wind blowing it off the roof before it had a chance
to thaw, thus robbing us of our usual water-supply. For a while we had
to use swamp water, which contained a good many insects of various kinds
and had a distinctly peaty flavour. Finding good water running from the
hill-tops down a deep gully on the east coast, three-quarters of a mile
away, we carried drinking water from there, using the other for washing
up.

The 13th w