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.