.

March began in earnest with much snow and monotonous days of wind. By
contrast, a few hours of sunny calm were appreciated to the full. The
face of the landscape changed; the rocky crevices filling flush with the
low mounds of snow which trailed along and off the ridges.

On March 16 every one was relieved to hear that the 'Aurora' had arrived
safely in Hobart, and that Wild and his party were all well. But the
news brought disappointment too, for we had always a lingering ray of
hope that there might be sufficient coal to bring the vessel back to
Adelie Land. Later on we learned that on account of the shortage of
funds the Ship was to be laid up at Hobart until the following summer.
In the meantime, Professors David and Masson were making every effort to
raise the necessary money. In this they were assisted by Captain Davis,
who went to London to obtain additional donations.

It was now a common thing for those of us who had gone to bed before
midnight to wake up in the morning and find that quite a budget of
wireless messages had been received. It took the place of a morning
paper and we made the most of the intelligence, discussing it from every
possible point of view. Jeffryes and Bickerton worked every night from 8
P.M. until 1 A.M., calling at short intervals and listening attentively
at the receiver. In fact, notes were kept of the intensity of
the signals, the presence of local atmospheric electrical
discharges--"static"--or intermittent sounds due to discharges from snow
particles--St. Elmo's fire--and, lastly, of interference in the
signals transmitted. The latter phenomenon should lead to interesting
deductions, for we had frequent evidence to show that the wireless waves
were greatly impeded or completely abolished during times of auroral
activity.

Listening at the wireless receiver must have been very tedious and
nerve-racking work, as so many adventitious sounds had to be neglected.
There was, first of all, the noise of the wind as it swept by the Hut;
then there was the occasional crackling of "St. Elmo's fire"; the dogs
in the veranda shelter were not always remarkable for their quietness;
while within the Hut it was impossible to avoid slight sounds which were
often sufficient to interrupt the sequence of a message. At times,
when the aurora was visible, signals would often die away, and the only
alternative was to wait until they recurred, meanwhile keeping up calls
at regular intervals in case