the ether was not "blocked." So Jeffryes
would sometimes spend the whole evening trying to transmit a single
message, or, conversely, trying to receive one. By experience it was
found easier to transmit and receive wireless messages between certain
hours in the evening, while not infrequently, during the winter months,
a whole week would go by and nothing could be done. During such a period
auroral displays were usually of nightly occurrence. Then a "freak
night" would come along and business would be brisk at both terminals.

It was often possible for Jeffryes to "hear" Wellington, Sydney,
Melbourne and Hobart, and once he managed to communicate directly
with the last-named. Then there were numerous ships passing along the
southern shores of Australia or in the vicinity of New Zealand whose
"calls" were audible on "good nights." The warships were at times
particularly distinct, and occasionally the "chatter in the ether" was
so confusing that Sawyer, at Macquarie Island, would signal that he was
"jammed."

The "wireless" gave us another interest in life, and plenty of outside
occupation when the stays became loose or an accident occurred. It
served to relieve some of the tedium of that second year:

Day after day the same
Only a little worse.

On March 13 there was a tremendous fall of snow, and worst "pea-souper"
we had had during the previous year. Next day everything was deluged,
and right up the glacier there were two-foot drifts, despite a
sixty-mile wind.

It was very interesting to follow the changes which occurred from day to
day. First of all, under the flail of the incessant wind, a crust would
form on the surface of the snow of the type we knew as "piecrust,"
when out sledging. It was never strong enough to bear a man, but the
sledge-runners would clear it fairly well if the load were not too
heavy. Next day the crust would be etched, and small flakes and pellets
would be carried away until the snow was like fleece. Assuming that the
wind kept up (which it always did) long, shallow concavities would
now be scooped out as the "lobules" of the fleece were carried away
piecemeal. These concavities became deeper, hour by hour and day by day,
becoming at last the troughs between the crests of the snow-waves or
sastrugi. All this time the surface would be gradually hardening and, if
the sun chanced to shine for even a few hours every day, a shining glaze
would gradually form on the long, bevelled mo