unds. It was never a wise
thing to walk on these polished areas in finnesko and this fact was
always learnt by experience.

Above the Hut, where the icy slopes fell quickly to the sea, the snow
would lie for a few days at the very most, but, lower down, where the
glacier ran almost level for a short distance to the harbour ice, the
drifts would lie for months at the mercy of the wind, furrowed and cut
into miniature canyons; wearing away in fragments until the blue ice
showed once more, clear and wind-swept.

Towards the end of March the wind gave a few exhibitions of its power,
which did not augur well for the maximum periods of the winter. A few
diary jottings are enough to show this:

"March 23. During the previous night the wind steadily rose to an
eighty-mile 'touch' and upwards. It was one of those days when it is a
perpetual worry to be outside.

"March 24. Doing at least seventy miles per hour during the morning.
About 8 P.M. there was a temporary lull and a rise of.15 in the
barometer. Now, 9.30 P.M., it is going 'big guns.' The drift is fairly
thick and snow is probably falling.

"March 25. Much the same as yesterday.

"March 28. In a seventy-five-mile wind, Hodgeman had several fingers
frost-bitten this morning while attending to the anemograph.

"March 29. It was quite sunny when we opened the trap-door, though it
blew about sixty miles per hour with light drift.

"March 30. The wind is doing itself full justice. About 8 P.M. it ranged
between ninety-five and one hundred miles per hour, and now the whole
hut is tremulous and the stove-pipe vibrates so that the two large pots
on the stove rattle."

At the beginning of April, McLean laid the foundations of The Adelie
Blizzard which recorded our life for the next seven months. It was a
monthly publication, and contributions were invited from all on every
subject but the wind. Anything from light doggerel to heavy blank verse
was welcomed, and original articles, letters to the Editor, plays,
reviews on books and serial stories were accepted within the limits of
our supply of foolscap paper and type-writer ribbons.

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