ound from south through east to north-east, from which
quarter it remained as a fresh breeze with falling snow. By 7 A.M.
the air was still, and outside there was a dead world of whiteness;
flocculent heaps of down rolling up to where glimpses of rock streaked
black near the skyline of the ridges, striated masses of livid cloud
overhead, and to the horizon the dark berg-strewn sea, over which the
snow birds fluttered.

We did not linger over the scenery, but set to work to hoist to the head
of the mainmast the aerial, which had been hurriedly put together. The
job occupied till lunch-time, and then a jury-mast was fixed to the
southern supporting mast, and by dusk the aerial hung in position.
Bickerton was the leading spirit in the work and subsequently steadied
the mainmast with eighteen wire stays, in the determination to make
it stable enough to weather the worst hurricane. The attempt was so
successful that in an ordinary fifty-mile "blow" the mast vibrated
slightly, and in higher winds exhibited the smallest degree of movement.

At eight o'clock that night, Jeffryes, who felt so benefited by his rest
that he was eager to commence operating once more, had soon "attuned"
his instrument to Macquarie Island, and in a few minutes communication
was reestablished.

We learned from the Governor-General, Lord Denman, that her Majesty the
Queen was "graciously pleased to consent to the name 'Queen Mary Land'
being given to newly discovered land." The message referred to the tract
of Antarctic coast which had been discovered and mapped by Wild and his
party to the west.

On August 6 Macquarie Island signalled that they had run short of
provisions. The message was rather a paradox: " Food done, but otherwise
all right." However, on August 11, we were reassured to hear that the
'Tutanekai', a New Zealand Government steamer, had been commissioned to
relieve the party, and that Sawyer through ill-health had been obliged
to return to Australia. A sealing-ship, the 'Rachel Cohen', after
battling for almost the whole month of July against gales, in an
endeavour to reach the island, with stores for our party and the
sealers, had returned damaged to port.

Marvellous to relate we had two calm days in succession, and on the 6th
the snow lay so deeply round the Hut that progression without skis was a
laborious flounder. The dogs plunged about in great glee, rolling in
the snow and "playing off" their surplus energy after being penn