had all been
experts like Mertz, we could have used them with advantage from time to
time.

The end of February approached. We were fully prepared for sledging,
and were looking forward to it with great expectation. The wind still
continued, often rising to the force of a hurricane, and was mostly
accompanied by snow.

One evening, when we were all at dinner, there was a sudden noise which
drowned the rush of the blizzard. It was found that several sledges had
been blown away from their position to the south of the Hut, striking
the building as they passed. They were all rescued except one, which had
already reached the sea and was travelling rapidly toward Australia.

Mertz, Bage and I had taken advantage of a lull to ascend the ice-slope
to the south, and to erect a flag-pole at a distance of two miles.
Besides being a beacon for sledging parties, it was used for ablation
measurements. These were determinations of the annual wasting of the
ice-surface, whether by evaporation, melting, or wind-abrasion.

Webb and Stillwell, assisted by others, had commenced to build the
Magnetograph House. Dr. Chree, of the British National Physical
Laboratory, had arranged that the German Antarctic Expedition, several
observatories in low latitudes and our own Expedition, should take
special "quick runs," synchronously, twice each month. A "quick run" was
a continuous, careful observation made over a period of two hours, on a
more searching time-scale then usual. Until the Magnetograph House was
established this could not be done efficiently, and so the construction
of this hut was pushed on as quickly as possible.

Many other schemes required our attention, and there was not a spare
moment for any one. Though we chafed at the delay in sledging, there
was some consolation in the fact that the scientific programme was daily
becoming more and more complete.

CHAPTER VI AUTUMN PROSPECTS

As far as we could see, the inland ice was an unbroken plateau with no
natural landmarks. From the hinterland in a vast solid stream the ice
flowed, with heavily crevassed downfalls near the coast. Traversing this
from north to south was a narrow belt, reasonably free from pitfalls,
running as a spur down to the sea. To reach the Hut in safety it would
be necessary for sledging parties returning from the interior to descend
by this highway. The problem was to locate the path. Determinations
of latitude and longitude would guide them to the