in the early autumn--few of us, then, were adepts at
finding our way by instinct--that Hodgeman and Madigan set out, one
morning, for the anemometer. Leaving the door of the Hut, they lost
sight of each other at once, but anticipated meeting at the instrument.
Madigan reached his destination, changed the records, waited for a while
and then returned, expecting to see his companion at the Hut. He did
not appear, so, after a reasonable interval, search parties set off in
different directions.

The wind was blowing at eighty miles per hour, making it tedious work
groping about and hallooing in the drift. The sea was close at hand
and we realized that, as the wind was directly off shore, a man without
crampons was in a dangerous situation. Two men, therefore, roped
together and carefully searched round the head of the boat harbour; one
anchoring himself with an ice-axe, whilst the other, at the end of the
rope, worked along the edge of the sea. Meanwhile Hodgeman returned to
the Hut, unaided, having spent a very unpleasant two hours struggling
from one landmark to another, his outer garments filled with snow.

The fact that the wind came steadily from the same direction made it
possible to steer, otherwise outdoor operations would not have
been conducted so successfully. For instance, Webb, who visited the
Magnetograph House, a quarter of a mile distant, at least once a day,
made his way between various "beacons" by preserving a definite bearing
on the wind. His journeys were rendered all the more difficult because
they were frequently undertaken at night.

In struggling along through very dense drifts one would be inclined to
think that the presence of the sun was a matter of small concern. As a
matter of fact there was, during the day, a good deal of reflected white
light and a dark object looms up within a yard or two. In darkness there
was nothing to recognize. So Webb would often run by dead reckoning on
to the roof of the Hut, and would then feel his way round it till he
caught the glimmer of a hurricane lantern coming through the veranda
entrance.

I had always the greatest admiration for the unfailing manner in which
those responsible for the tidal, magnetic and meteorological work
carried out their duties.

As a measure of the enormous amount of drift, we set about constructing
a gauge, which, it was hoped, would give us a rough estimate of the
quantity passing the Hut in a year. Hannam, following the approved