Sept 11th to October 23rd

I had resolved last time that I would write up this diary every international day, ie once a fortnight, but the next one was an extra special Equinox one and we took runs every hour instead of every two hours, and on the next one I developed eight films as well as 13 records which kept me very busy. So now it is on six weeks that I must look back and though it has been eventful it is difficult to remember everything; have been so busy that I have kept only the briefest daily note and this often written up several days late.

Brownie and I have all the time been the sole residents at the Base camp though we have had a full spate of visitors. The ionosphere work was going well last time I wrote and it has continued to do so and though we are gradually improving our technique there has been no important change. Setting up the Pole Star spectograph (known as Polaris) took a lot of time as it was not till some weeks after the equinox that it was dark enough at midnight for the pole star to be visible, and Polaris had to be aligned on it. Many times I had to readjust the whole thing each time getting it closer and closer and then there was the ‘declination adjustment’ carried out outside with a theodolite, which we had to do in about 20 degrees of frost, and this, with the snow on round boulders did not make it easy to use the theodolite. However by now Polaris is in position, focussed, and I have taken several photographs with it which appear good, but it is not possible to tell until we get back to England - when it will be too late if they are not good! One only has to hope for the best. This work has to be done at night and I have been up late several times; there should be an automatic device on it to turn it on each hour, but this got broken on the way up - still in any case I would never dare leave it with the skylight in the ionosphere hut open all night.

Aurorae have started now; I spent some time focussing the auroral camera at first and have it in order now, but I have not had much opportunity of photographing them, as unfortunately we have to take special ionosphere runs during auroral storms. The photographs are very disappointing, not that it is the camera’s fault but because no photograph could reproduce a subject of such extraordinary beauty. We have only had the normal coloured ones - light green - but these are often in the form of curtains waving about as if blown by the wind while the whole band moves across the sky.

The meteorological work has gone on - some of the self-registering instruments have given just a little trouble at times and the thermometer for measuring the temperature 5 metres above the surface were broken during a gale, but otherwise all has gone well. We regularly send our reports to Bear Island, and only this morning failed to get through on account of atmospheric conditions. On one occasion after I had been late up with Polaris, Brownie took the early morning readings, but couldn’t get an answer, only to find that it was an hour later than he thought and he had slept through the alarm. It adds interest to the work to send these reports, but it ties us down very much. The Benndorf has given no end of trouble - every day it goes wrong in a new way, but it is a source of a great deal of amusement.

the transmitter

Brownie got his transmitter to England for Sept.15th schedule, but did not hear the post office until the third day and Johnson not at all. The P.O. didn’t seem to be listening or sending, for after Brownie sent a message via Advent Bay to remind the P.O., he heard them and got through without difficulty. On Oct 1 and Oct 15 schedules he got through to P.O. first time, but never Johnson at all. He also communicates ‘by bicycle’ to Advent Bay on Sat. and Sun. evenings, though the schedule has been reduced to Saturday morning only. Recently we have been in communication with Robert on the ice-cap by morse and radio-telephone too.

The weather has been very variable. After snow had fallen in the first week or so of September we thought we would have it till next summer. Temperatures were then between 20℉ and 30℉ or so with either a N.W. or S.W. wind but at the end of September we were occasionally getting readings of 11℉ or !2℉, with snow at times, and 10℉ to 12℉ was the usual temperature up to October 7th. On that day we had a real gale, and it really did feel cold; in the morning I could hardly walk against the wind to take the readings and there were huge waves on the sea with big clouds of spray splashing over the point; the wind averaged 50mph for 5 hours afterwards. The next day the wind was round to S.E. and there was a dead calm on the sea - showing that ice cannot be very far away. By 9th the temperature was above freezing point, where it has remained practically ever since, and except in some drifts all the snow has disappeared. On the 22nd we had a gale from S.E. but at such a high temperature as 33℉ - warmer than in England we hear on the wireless - it did not seem as severe as the last.

Up to now it has not been necessary to put on specially thick clothes; what I have been wearing all this time is pants and flannel trousers, a shirt, polo jersey, sometimes a thin sleeveless sweater and a lumber jacket. The latter are disappointing as they are not very warm or windproof, but they have pockets and are useful to wear on top and take the wear and the wet. Then balaclavas, gloves according to cold. On the feet we wear komagers these are heel-less boots reaching above the ankle of seal skin - the sole is of the skin of the bearded seal and the upper parts the skin of the storkober (?), I think - and these are made waterproof by painting them with boiling tar and blubber. Inside you stuff senna-grass and then wear one or two pairs of stockings. I suppose they are the most suitable footwear, and at times they seem satisfactory, but they are uncomfortable on all these boulders and are easily bent out of shape. The sheepskins we don only over pyjamas when we sometimes have to fill the Petter with petrol during the night, but now that Brownie has added an extra tank that is no longer necessary.

We usually get up at 6.45a.m. G.M.T. For one period we kept local time which is about 1¼ hours ahead, and got up at 6a.m. to save lighting the lamp in the evening as we are to economise in paraffin, but we gave it up though I liked it much better. Breakfast as soon after bicycling to Bear Island (at 7.30), lunch (usually cold - bully, cheese, bread, or Vita-weat and chocolate etc) and a cooked supper at night - either a tinned meat, or more usually now roast or fried reindeer meat. This is extremely good, very fat, and when roast rather like beef, but when fried it has a fine distinctive taste of its own. We always read at meal times - it may seem unsociable, but is not really so as we are together all the time, and it’s the only form of recreation we have. Since settling down I have read ‘Don Quixote’ (vol 1), ‘ Rise of the Dutch Republic’, The Conquered’, ‘Brazilian Adventure’, ‘Polar Adventure’, ‘Alice in Wonderland’, and now ‘Jane Eyre’.

We usually get the news bulletin either from London National or Droitwich either at 6 or the later one, and also listen to music, and get a good concert anytime either from England or more likely Germany and sometimes from Moscow. But our best friend is Dr John R. Brinkley of the Brinkley Hospital, Del Rio, Texas who broadcasts continuously from Rendusau (?) Mexico, advertising the Brinkley Doctor Book, his substitute for an operation for prostate trouble, and all his competitions by which you can win a first-class house in the finest residential part of Del Rio. We get him at breakfast time.

I’m becoming quite an expert at bread making. At first I did it as usual in a basin but when he was here last time, Dan produced a mixing machine which saves a lot of mess. Sometimes the bread is almost perfect but we all prefer it not quite done and indigestible.

Our regular companions are the puppies, but the base is becoming a hospital for dogs. Annapup still continues to be a nuisance but she is most intelligent and funny at times. She always used to live under the porch and one day at the time when she was growing quickly we heard shrieks; she had got stuck in getting underneath, so we gave her a push and got her in. So then she just turned round and tried to get out and got stuck again so we had to pull her out. Whereupon she turned about and got stuck trying to get back in again in which state we left her, but the noise continued for some time. In the last few days Brownie and I have been for scrambles up some of the screes near the base, and Annapig love to come with us. She is so funny the way she is almost constantly crying as she gets left behind when she gets held up by big rocks but if we wait a bit and don’t help she invariably finds a way round. On the first day she slipped down an ice slope for about 40 ft; poor thing she went head downwards like a sphinx with a look of terror on her face as she gathered speed towards two big boulders, but she wasn’t hurt, and after a bit of encouragement went up again and got ahead of us; she may be a bit spoilt but she is a friendly, plucky and intelligent puppy. Hansigne’s puppies we have named Ionoark, Appleton and Ozonoark Dobson. They are beautiful puppies, but very scared - as bad as their mother. We used to shut up Hansigne and make Ionoark and Ozonoark play with Annadark - Hansigne doesn’t like this and nearly bit Annadark’s head off once. But the puppies enjoy playing, and Hansigne returned to the teams a week or so ago, and the puppies are getting on well. They also seek refuge under the porch now, and the ground is getting so worn that now Annapup can get underneath again. Next arrival was the big dog, Ayo, whose harness was too small and hurt his chest. Then came Upik who was expected to have a family, and Spjaet, who has a bad leg. He has got his winter coat well grown now and looks a fine beast, and is friendly too. It’s nice to have little Upik back for she is always the nicest. The day before yesterday she had a litter of nine little black puppies.

We had excitement one day when Brownie was tarring the komagers, for the tin with the tar in it on the stove leaked and the whole thing caught fire, but he seized the Pyrene and it was out in two seconds - though the volumes of thick smoke drove us out of the house for a long time.

Sunday August 25th - Wednesday September 11th

Only Brownie and I were now left in the base camp, until the return of the boat journey who are expected back in about a week’s time. I think we were both anxious to be left thus to get on with out own work, for with the others there we were continually being interrupted and held up by very irregular hours. Our first action when the others had left was to have a really good wash - the first real one since Tromsö! - and it was a very thorough one in warm water, and then to bed. As we are so to speak the permanent residents at the base, we have the pick of the bunks and have each chosen bottom ones. There are 9 bunks, three stories high along the long wall of the bedroom. They are just 6ft long - a little too short really, but adequate in width and a four inch side to prevent you falling off. The worst point is that there is only about 2ft between the stories, so that if you sit up quickly or move about much you crack your head on the bunk above. Also this makes them very difficult to get into at first. As a soft foundation we tried the air-inflated rubber “Li-lo” mattress the first night, and found them so comfortable that we have continued with them.

Our day is divided naturally into four parts by our three meals. Before breakfast (at the beginning) and after supper, we devote our attention to camp duties, and the rest of the time to our scientific work. Before breakfast, time is usually spent in fetching driftwood from above the high water mark in the N. bay about 100yds from the house, and making a large dump in front of the house for winter use. Brownie is responsible for practically the whole dump, for usually when I had taken the meteorological readings at 7a.m. I got breakfast, and what with lighting the fire, fetching water, stirring the porridge or cutting the bacon, I had no time to fetch more wood than enough for current use so as not to draw on Brownie’s dump. I also gradually filled the water butt as a reserve against a non-rainy day. At first our evening duties consisted in bringing up to the house the 120 bags of coal that were just landed on the shore - in a most inconvenient position. Sandy suggested we should do two bags a day, and we were quite pleased when we did six on the first day. Soon we developed a technique of getting the bags on to our backs and climbing up a staircase of other bags, so that we did 10 the next day and improved daily, finishing up with 27 on the last day - finishing the whole job in 10 days. Then we had to get indoors all the cases containing things that would be damaged by frost. Next we put up ropes all the way from the house to the ionosphere hut and between all the meteorological instruments so that we wouldn’t get lost during a storm, and now we are engaged in piling stones round the ionosphere hut to prevent its being blown away. We usually knock off work just before 10 o’clock and listen to the news bulletin on the Empire short-wave programme. We can usually hear Droitwich at that hour, but not earlier. Here we keep G.M.T. - a bad plan I think. And so in bed about 10.30p.m. Sometimes when the wind is from the S.E. we scavenge round the house and have a bonfire of the rubbish.

As regards the scientific work, I had more or less got the meteorological station going before the others left, and the first thing to get going afterwards was the ionosphere. Brownie engaged himself with the electrical part of it, and I fitted up the darkroom. By knocking a hole between the living room and the darkroom, we managed to arrange it so that the ionosphere camera is in the darkroom and can be controlled from the living room, which saved our having to carry the large and clumsy camera into the darkroom several times a day. We took our first record on 27th August, and had no end of trouble at first with the photographic part, and with the calibrator which would not lock in with the time base. Brownie thought it was the Petter engine that was at fault - its speed certainly seems to vary a certain amount, but try as he could, he could not get the flywheel off the engine. The generator also gave trouble, and we spent no little time with it. Gradually the photography got better, though, but there always seemed to be something wrong, until after a few days we took the camera down and found the cause of the trouble, and since then all has gone well. A few days later Brownie found a loose connection, and on joining it up properly the calibrator locked in with the time base, so we had unjustifiably been putting the blame on the Petter. Since then, apart from some little difficulty with the clock and a few other little troubles, it has improved daily, and the records we now get seem good to us. We are now engaged on an International day: these occur once a fortnight when we take runs (each occupy 30 - 45 minutes) every two hours from 4p.m. Wednesday to 4p.m. Thursday. It has been made a bit easier today as there is a magnetic storm in progress; this shortens the runs and gives most interesting results. Our magnetometer became lively for the first time this morning, and we have had an active day.

some of the equipment in the hut

Apart from this, Brownie has been engaged on battery-charging and on his big transmitter. I have been getting other things out and set up, and have gradually been finishing getting all the meteorology ready. What takes quite a lot of time now, but what is quite fun and keeps us at regular hours, is that we send weather reports every day at 7.30am. 12.30pm. and 5.30pm. G.M.T. to the wireless station at Bear Island, who then send them on to Tromsö, and thus out to the world. We generate the power by bicycling a dynamo. It looks absurd, but is effective and is warming exercise. We could not get through the first two days, chiefly we think because we had not heard a time signal for several days and probably we called him up at the wrong time. Since then we have only failed once to get through when our transmitter broke down one morning, and they asked for the morning’s report at noon - so they do seem to value it a bit. It’s nice to be in such constant communication with the world too, for we couldn’t get Advent Bay on Saturday, and the England transmitter is not going yet. It’s not always easy getting up for the 7o’clock observations, but the weather reports make one be pretty punctual, as the message has to be coded.

'Brownie' Whatman using the bicycle generator

to transmit messages to Bear Island

The weather has been getting more and more wintery. Whereas it had been quite warm in August, September set in cold with hard frosts, and by 3rd. Sept. the stream was frozen dry, and we were glad of the full butt as the nearest snow-drift is about 7 minutes walk from here. We were nearly at the bottom of our reserves when after a calm day on the 7th the N.W. wind started blowing on the 8th bringing snow with it, and since then the ground has been covered with snow, and deep in some drifts. The North Westerly has been blowing continuously since then, and it has seemed much colder, so that we keep the stove going continuously now; it’s overcast all the time and we haven’t seen the sun for a week. Up till now we have lit the fire for breakfast and for supper and have had a cold lunch, for the driftwood burns up so quickly that we cannot spare the time to look after it all day. It really is true that one becomes an absolute glutton here, why, I don’t know - I freely admit it and everybody is the same - we just eat and eat and eat. We haven’t much time to cook, so we have either porridge or bacon and eggs for breakfast, and cook something tinned for supper, except that recently we have had seal meat, which is excellent. We have also started on our vitamin food and have a Redoxyn tablet each morning which contains all the Vitamin C of five lemons, and Bemax and Cod Liver Oil on alternate days - one of these is distinctly preferable to the other!

It has not been in the slightest monotonous, but there have been only two events. On the evening of Sunday 1st., as we were having a camp clearance and bonfire we were surprised to see a rowing boat coming in and it turned out to be Dan and Andrew. They had been seal-hunting and being quite near they called in and we had a grand time at supper. They were having difficulty in setting up the ice-cap stations as there had been no snow on the glacier and the dogs could not get a grip on the blue ice. However they had dumped a great deal of stores at the foot of the glacier, had done a lot of work at the advanced base, and Sandy and Robert were studying ice conditions. They left us some seal and went off after supper.

The next event was on Saturday 7th when I noticed Hansigne, the missing bitch, had come to camp again to look for food. She always used to do so, and Andrew had made three attempts to follow her but always lost her in the end. We hadn’t seen her for some time and we decided to take the opportunity - a good one as she would leave tracks in the snow - and also take our first bit of holiday - so we gave her some seal (she was thin and ravenous) and shut her up until we had sent our noon weather report, and told Bear Island that we wouldn’t send a message that evening. So we put Hansigne on a rope and took the boat to the foot of the glacier, somewhere beyond the top of which we knew she lived. We kept her on a long lead and at first she started off with enthusiasm and pulled me up the glacier, but after a bit she hesitated and when we reached the boulders on the top of Base mountain - here the going was difficult as the stones were covered with recently fallen snow - she led us all over the place and round in circles and back on her tracks, and we couldn’t decide whether she was trying to fox us or whether she was really lost. It was only snowing lightly intermittently, so we let her loose and followed her tracks. She trotted off to the north and we followed at a discrete distance. Then she doubled back and got further ahead until we lost sight of her. She kept on going over the same ground as she did when on the lead so that her tracks were mixed up with the old ones. We got quite lost after a bit, but going in the direction where she had last been seen, I very luckily struck a single recent track going south. After a bit the tracks doubled and split as if she had gone one way and returned and gone off at right angles. We followed the tracks and found as we expected - that they doubled back after a few hundred yards. So we started off on the branch track and soon came to another double one, and just as we were wondering if this would lead anywhere we heard what sounded like a yelp several hundred yards away, and was astounded to see Hansigne with two puppies not 10 yards away. The puppies tried to hide under rocks, but we got them out and photographed them, and then putting them in our rucksacks we started for home. Poor Hansigne, she had absolutely no shelter at all, and was lying right exposed in the open and I am sure if we hadn‘t found them that day the puppies would never have survived this cold and windy week at the top of that open hill. Coming down the glacier we found that the safest way was to sit and slide. So we got then back, and now they are all in the dog house, and we only wish we could let Andrew know.

Tuesday August 20th. - Sunday August 25th.

After John, David and Karl had departed there was less congestion in the camp, and on the whole we probably got on better, though the loss of Karl was great. On Wednesday we took down all the tents and moved into the hut, which was now quite finished. The crew were engaged in building a dog house and in finishing off the engine house. Ever since the first few days Robert had been sleeping in the main dome tent, and I had had our little tent to myself and got to like it very much. Actually they are two-man (or at a pinch, three) tents, but when you have a year’s supply of thick clothes to get in too, it’s congested with only two occupants. Except one night when a lot of water came in I always slept very well there, and tho’ the others moved into the hut several days ago, I stayed in the tent till the last possible moment.

Wednesday was spent chiefly in preparing for setting up the Advance Base. Next morning Dan and Andrew set off in “Polar” to set it up at the bottom of Brandy Bay. This is to act as a base for the two ice-cap stations until about January, when the bay should freeze over. The dogs, of course went too: really I had got to like many of them very much. The terrified Woolly Bear - Merkujuk is his real name - took a lot of catching. He is old and shaggy and lonely and very timid. I only very recently managed to get near enough to hem to pet him. He must have been badly treated in Greenland when young, and is always being bullied by the others, so he always occupies the highest place on the rocks to get a commanding view of the neighbourhood, or else settles on a rock out a sea! He always slinks away in fear when you go near him, but we all love our Woolly Bear as he is so pricelessly funny.

Woolly Bear?

The dogs didn’t like being put on the boat, and most of them had to be dragged to it and thrown in, where they stayed, apparently in misery. Woolly Bear, however, showed a great deal of dash and enterprise. I caught him at first without difficulty, for he was sound asleep on the highest rock, and I got right up to him before he awoke. He was most affectionate when petted, but when he saw he was to go to the boat he just stood still, and I had to carry him. This took a long time as he put on such a miserable face that everyone wanted to photograph him . I just managed to get him to the boat, and we got him on board, where he was so unhappy that he promptly jumped out and swam ashore. I chased him round and round the house: then he went off down the coast and I only managed to get beyond him to head him off because he saw a line of boulders running out to sea, and jumping from one to the next he settled on the furthermost one. Luckily he suddenly decided to come ashore again so I could drive him back to camp, where he promptly jumped into the boat on his own accord! Just afterwards, when nobody was looking, he jumped out again and went out again on the rocks. Brownie drove him towards the point, and as all the other dogs were now on board, the boat came out to the point to collect him. Just as Brownie was going to catch him and throw him in, he made a gallant dash and escaped. Sandy, Brownie and I drove him again out to the point and this tine we made no mistake and he was got safely on to the boat and rowed out to “Polar”, and we saw what is probably the last of our Woolly Bear.

Only Sandy, Archie, Robert, Brownie and I were now left at the base. Robert was much better by now, but not strong, but is a most hard-working and successful cook. Of the dogs, only the puppy Annadark and her mother Marratark were left. The puppy is getting bigger and is great fun: she can already bite quite hard and is always ready to fight you, so we bully her hard. She is much more expert than any of the others in chewing through tent guy-ropes, and when you come out of the house she immediately attacks your shoes. Marratark is a good mother, and a friendly creature, but very ugly. Hansigne returns about every other day for food, but all efforts in following her and finding her pups has failed.

Marratark and her puppy

We had some stormy days, but with occasional sunny periods. It was during one of these latter that I had an accident with the ozone spectograph, for when I was carrying it to take a photograph I stepped on a stone that was unsteady and fell over, and broke the chlorine-bromine filter. We waxed it up immediately but I am afraid it is too late. My chief job has been to get the meteorological station going and this took very much longer than I expected. All the self-registering stations had to be set going, and I had to explain and show them to Sandy and also take a clock to pieces and show him how to clean it. Brownie was busy with the engines and the ionosphere apparatus, while Sandy and Archie were busy with stores and other administrative work, and the hut got in a great muddle. “Polar” returned on Saturday evening with our whale -boat. and departed for the last time taking Robert to the Advance Base first. On Sunday morning the meteorological station being mostly set up, I was up to take the readings at 7a.m. The day was spent mostly in preparing for the departure of Sandy and Archie, who left, rowing hard, in the skiff in the evening. It will have been a hard row as it’s a good 13 miles and they’ve both been working hard here.

Monday August 12th

Sandy did more than bring John home last night, for he also brought back 6 of the 7 lost dogs. My own work is held up because all the things I want are still on board at the bottom of the hold and Sandy won’t have it emptied till the house is built. Great progress was made in the latter to-day and all the framework of the roof is begun. I spent most of the day helping Karl with the ionosphere hut, and in helping to clear away big boulders for the engine room, and other general duties. In the evening I went out with Andrew in the skiff along the coast to see if we could find Hansigne, the missing bitch, but in vain. It was simply glorious, however, rowing under the cliffs with screes coming right down to the sea, with the sun surrounded by thin cirrus clouds of most delicate structure and passing small icebergs of most fantastic shapes with arches and caves - it’s wonderful how they get worked by the sea. It was a real treat, that row.

Tuesday August 13th - Tuesday August 20th

"Polar" crew help build the hut

Been much too busy to write daily. The crew have been building the hut now, and it is almost finished and is occupied though I still prefer to sleep in the tent. We’ve all been busy with other jobs erecting wireless parts, putting down concrete for one of my spectrographs, building an engine-room, stopping dog fights, and now preparing all the food and equipment for the ice-cap stations. The boat survey party (John, David, Karl) went off yesterday, and “Polar” takes the ice-cap personnel and equipment to the bottom of the bay tomorrow and leaves with the post for England. We had a surprise visit from two other ships, Vesteris and Isbjorn, last Tuesday, with hunters on board who had wintered in Rijps Bay and told us to expect a very hard and cold winter. The weather has been worse; one day it was damp and misty, another dull with a N.W. wind which was very cold; the next day it snowed for quite a time but in the absence of wind it felt warmer. Today it was clear and sunny and warm. Brownie got our wireless going on Sunday. For a long time we’ve had no idea of the time - everybody’s watch differed to the extent of two hours - and one of the first things we heard was the Greenwich time signal, which was not much use as it meant it was only at some quarter. Next we heard Big Ben strike half-past something but we didn’t know whether it was six or seven. Finally we got the time, and lost an hour’s sleep on account of it!

Saturday August 10th

To our great joy and some surprise “Polar” was in the bay when we got up this morning; she had got in at about 3a.m. After breakfast we started unloading coal, there were about ten tons of it and most of the bags were too heavy for me to carry. However, the crew and Brownie did Trojan work and the bags we got on to the shore beyond the sea level. After lunch we unloaded the wood for the hut and that took us till 7 o’clock. Schmidt has come in ‘Polar” to superintend the building of the hut. I was cook tonight and found how good tinned sausages are! After supper Sandy, Andrew and Archie departed to the other side.

Sunday August 11th

It was a truly magnificent sunny day, rather like an English fine May day except that it lasted for 24 hours! So much warmer that there was a general discard of clothing and after days of freezing temperatures I was warm in just flannel trousers, a shirt and a jersey. Sandy, Andrew and Archie returned early in the morning, having had a successful visit to the other side. Dan and David went off in the motor boat, hunting. Brownie and I erected a huge stand to hang seals on, and later I helped Karl to build the ionosphere hut and Brownie in erecting the telephone and cable posts between it and the main hut. It was hot working. I also noticed that since leaving England I have let my belt out two holes! Apart from usual food, we eat biscuits and margarine almost continuously, so we’ll be very fat before the winter begins. There were complicated boat changes in the evening - Sandy and Archie had pieced together one of the Klippers - a collapsible two-man canoe - and went off in it, met Dan and David and exchanged boats and then apparently got John too, but they are not back now. The crew started building the hut to-day and got on splendidly in the morning, though they don’t seem to have done much since.

Thursday August 8th

I had heard rain falling on the tent several times during the night and was surprised not to hear it on getting up. It was certainly a surprise, however to find the ground covered with snow and light snow still falling. Here was a predicament! I was on breakfast duty and the stove was covered in snow and there was no dry wood or paper anywhere. So we just had to have a cold breakfast. Nothing could be done afterwards, so we just retired again and I read and calculated all the barometer corrections. The snow had changed to slight rain during the morning, but using the oven was still out of the question, so the only thing to be done was to have a cold lunch (as usual) and to get out the primus stoves afterwards. Looking off and on it was ages before we could find these; we found from the invoices that Benjamin Edgington had supplied 6 of them, and we thought the others had taken two away with them, and we found three unopened cases but these all contained nothing but lamps and radiators. There was also an empty case, but nowhere in the camp could we find the stoves. We were just giving up in despair when I found them in another case that had been opened and half emptied.

Though it was drizzling slightly all the time it was not unpleasant during the afternoon, and we did do one useful piece of work in sticking up the poles of the hoar-frost beacon. We got the primus going and celebrated it by having tea, and then started cooking a feast of a supper. After washing up it was really fine with the sun shining on the hills to the East and we could see across the bay. The temperature was just at freezing-point, and Brownie and I got some exercise and a good view by climbing up one of the screes up the cliffs. One of the most friendly dogs - Angussvak - came with us and after a bit they nearly all followed. Old woolly bear got on a ledge and was too frightened to get off again, but found a way when we went down. The dogs have been loose ever since we landed and have gradually been getting cleaner and today's snow has made a lot of difference, so now one can touch them without regretting it. After seeing to Robert, who was better to-day but still in bed, we went off ourselves.

a clean husky

journal Entry - Monday August 5th

It may not be believed, but I was one of the first up this morning and helped to fry eggs and potatoes - not very successfully. It is Bank holiday, but not for us. In the morning we stacked the food-boxes in some semblance of order, and were enraged by Peak Freans who, in spite of our request to limit the weight of boxes to 75lbs, put all the Vita-Weat into one box and it needed four of us to lift it.

In the afternoon we went out sealing, which is good fun. John and Brownie went out on the ice, but Andrew, Karl and I continued in the whale boat. Karl stands in the bows, I sit at the oars, and Andrew sits in the stern to help spot the seals, or row or steer. The chief trouble is that the seal sinks when killed, so when a seal is within 40 yards or so, Karl shoots and we row hard, and Carl harpoons the seal before it has sunk too deep. He missed the first two - he hadn’t used the rifle before - but killed with all the remaining four of his shots. One we lost, as it dropped overboard just as we were landing, but luckily we found it later - floating - for some obscure reason. Karl said it was a bad day and that the seals were scared, and certainly they never came very near. After that we went home and had seal for supper at night, but as Karl insisted on cooking it for three hours we didn’t start eating till 11p.m. - i.e. after local midnight. Still, it is light all the time, and it was worth waiting as long for it.

Journal Entry - Tuesday August 6th

Mostly spent in general duties about camp - opening boxes and breaking them up for firewood, stacking boxes, cooking, washing up etc. The feature of the day has been the rolling of a stone down the cliff - not into the camp. It was a big boulder that loosened right at the top and you could hear it - right up at the top bringing a few others with it but gradually the smaller ones got stopped and the big ones rolled right down to the bottom. The time it took to fall shows how high the cliffs really are. In the evening under John’s supervision some of us helped to build a cairn of big boulders with a large piece of driftwood in the middle, and then I helped Karl with his repairs and improvements to the big boat. Robert stayed in bed to-day, not feeling well.

Journal Entry - Wednesday August 7th

It was sunny and bright as usual in the morning on getting up, but there had been a short shower during the night. At first all efforts were directed in getting off the reconnoitering and surveying party in the big boat with the outboard. Sandy, Andrew and Karl were going to Karl’s hut in the Hansteen valley - the originally planned base - (the ice in the bay has now gone out) to investigate that site and to examine the way up to the ice-cap, while Dan and John were to start the survey. They got off at midday, and when we last saw them the little motor was taking them at top speed across the bay. Archie had returned on “Polar” to fetch the medical stores. Robert was still in bed, so only Brownie, David and I were left at the camp. We busied ourselves mostly with jobs of our own - I had unpacking to do, and piled snow on the cairn to make it more visible, and did most of the catering. The mist came down in the afternoon and we soon couldn’t see the other side of the bay. In the afternoon we went out sealing for a bit, but saw none about. After that we had fun trying to cook three eider duck that had been shot in the last few days, and it was very successful. Afterwards a bit of spare time for writing, and fairly early to bed.

Setting up the base camp

Saturday August 3rd (cont)

We had breakfast at the usual time and then started on the terrific job of landing all the equipment and food. All the things had to be handled by hand, and after being landed from the boat they had to be taken up the shore for some 40yds over big boulders. In the first place there was so much ice in the harbour that the boat couldn’t get close in, and we had to get some of it out of the way and blast away some of the shelf-ice under the water frozen on to the land. Thus we managed to get the boats in so that only one or two men had to stand in the water. We made a sort of slipway out of driftwood and that helped a bit, for sometimes we could slide things up it instead of carrying them; in the afternoon, however, the tide got very strong and the boats had to land at another place further away. We had some fun with a lot of petrol cans which we nearly lost: these we got from ship to shore by threading a rope through the handles, throwing them overboard and then pull them floating to the shore. In the afternoon tide they got carried behind the point, but after some fun we got them back. It was these 10 gallon petrol cans (160 of them) that were so beastly to handle, as even with two men carrying them and sliding them up the slipway, they seemed very heavy and the narrow handles hurt the hand so much. The crew helped splendidly - mostly in the ship and in the boats, but the first engineer came ashore and carried enormous cases on his back. We worked till a late supper was served on the ship and we slept there that night with the prospect of a lot of big cases the next day, but at least no petrol cans!

Sunday August 4th

Unloading proceeded as before in the morning, and all went well till we got to the really big cases of wireless material at the end. Then an accident occurred, for as we were unloading the last boat-load, in lifting a case from boat to shore, the boat tipped up so much that it began to fill with water, and though all got landed safely three of them got very wet, and Brownie and I spent hours unpacking (without adequate tools) to see what was wet and putting it out to dry. Luckily it was a fine sunny day - all things were all right and the Petter engine was started to drive the generator hoping that warming it in that way would dry it out. The others went on board to lunch and to fetch personal baggage while we were doing this; then “Polar” departed, and by the time our examination was finished she was a speck on the horizon. She was going back to South Gat to fetch the hut and other stores brought up by “Lyngen”. Luckily Sandy discovered in time that some of the medical stores were lost in transit so “Polar” was to proceed to Advent Bay to get them from the hospital. So she won’t be back for a week. Camp was set up by the others: two dome tents - one for

eating in, and Brownie, Karl and a lot of damageable stores in the other - one pyramid tent and three ----- tents. Tonight I was introduced to pemmican at supper, and enjoyed it.

tents erected, dealing with the packing cases