P.M. There was a cheering note from Bage in
the "Grotto", wishing us good luck.

To avoid crevasses we steered first of all to the southwest on the
morning of the 5th, which was clear and bright. After six miles the
sastrugi became hard and compact, so the course was changed to due west.
Shortly afterwards, a piece of rock ** which we took to be a meteorite,
was found on the surface of the snow. It measured approximately five
inches by three inches by three and a half inches and was covered with a
black scale which in places had blistered; three or four small pieces of
this scale were lying within three inches of the main piece. Most of
the surface was rounded, except one face which looked as if it had been
fractured. It was lying on the snow, in a slight depression, about
two and a half inches below the mean surface, and there was nothing to
indicate that there had been any violent impact.

** This has since been examined by Professor E. Skeats and
Stillwell, who report it to be an interesting form of meteorite,
containing amongst other minerals, plagioclase felspar. This is, we
believe, the first occasion on which a meteorite has been found in the
Antarctic regions.--ED.

At eight o'clock that night we had done twelve miles, losing sight of
the sea at a height of about three thousand feet. All felt pleased and
looked forward to getting over a ridge ahead, which, from an altitude
of four thousand feet, ran in pencilled outline to the western point of
Commonwealth Bay.

On December 6 it was drifting hard, and part of the morning was spent
theorizing on our prospects in an optimistic vein. This humour gradually
wore off as the thick drift continued, with a fifty-mile wind, for three
days.

At 5 P.M. on December 8 a move was made. The drift was what our
Hut-standard reckoned to be "moderate," but the wind had fallen to
thirty miles an hour and had veered to the east; so the sail was
hoisted. The going was difficult over a soft surface, and after five
hours, by which time the drift had perceptibly thickened, we had done
eight miles.

The thirst each one of us developed in those earlier days was
prodigious. When filling the cooker with snow it was hard to refrain
from packing it "up to the knocker" in order to obtain a sufficient
supply of water.

The next day it blew harder and drifted thicker. Above the loud flapping
of the tent and the incessant sizzling of the drift we discussed our
situation. We were o