Sunday December 15th

Sunday December 15th

It’s always Sunday in this place. Today is a good example for showing how it is the wind that makes it feel cold outside rather than the actual temperature. The temperature has been 10℉ steadily all day, overcast and almost windless, but I wore only shirt and pullover and no gloves when I cleaned out the foxes in the afternoon, and later when Brownie raised a false alarm about a bear outside we went outside with the revolver and I had on only a shirt with sleeves rolled up and it was not a bit cold. Brownie is always raising hopes about a bear, but it’s always ‘wolf.’ Matilda seems better today - she is frightened when I clean out the cage and sits on top of her little house and turns round and round in circles. Valiant Leonidas is a treat: he sits on top of his house and growls and snarls and snaps at the hook, so once I put it near him and he looked at it for about 10 seconds then made a sudden bite at the iron, which made him even more angry.

Had a washing day today - a lot of snow outside easily got, pleasant weather for fetching it and plenty of opportunity for melting it on the stove so it was an ideal day. Some towels (very dirty), two handkerchiefs and a pair of pyjamas of Brownie’s which he had put away as dirty in the days when we remembered what we called dirty in England. Yes, it was just a little dirty and it came out even cleaner even though it had been washed in the same water as the wash-up towels.

In the evening I took up a needle for the first time. First some trouser buttons which had given under the strain due to increasing girth, and then a mend in my flannel trousers. I suppose I should have put on a patch, but what with ? So I darned it with brown wool; it was rather an untidy mess in the end for the loops at the end were too long, but I hope it will shrink and also that the rent will stop getting bigger. And then really a technically good darn in a pair of pants repairing a slit made when my knife slipped and cut through trousers and pants. It was during this darning that I made up my mind not to wash clothes again unless absolutely necessary for (a) it is a nuisance (vide supra) (b) if you don’t wash yourself it’s no good washing clothes, and vice versa (c) if something fits why ask it to shrink by washing it, (d) the darnings will probably come to bits in the wash. Handkerchiefs and towels perhaps, but never more than a minimum. It really is troublesome this washing business, the water is nice and soft and all that, but it is the water production that takes such a long time and trouble: one bucketful of snow reduces probably to less than a quarter of a bucketful of water. The most efficient way is to start with a capital of water and boil it in the kettle and then pour it into the bucket of snow and melting it and then pour most of the water (equal to the capital) back into the bottle and the profit into the jug, and go outside and fill the bucket with snow again, and so on. If done systematically this is no trouble on and ordinary day, but on a washing day, not only is much more water needed but also the bucket is used for the washing so that another smaller vessel must be used for snow collecting, and the number of snow journeys is increased in the ratio of Vb/V where Vb is the volume of the bucket, and V that of the vessel used. In addition a hot fire has to be maintained for all the snow melting which is unpleasant from a physical point of view. So you see it hardly is worth while.

Nearly died bicycling to Robert today, for the room had got greenhouse-ish with the washing. Daniel sent a message to be sent to England including the word 'Trogdolyte.' At Brownies’s suggestion I replied (we always send double to one another) “Trogdolyte Trogdolyte usually usually spelt spelt Troglodyte Troglodyte. Shall shall I I send send Troglodyte Troglodyte or or Trogdolyte Trogdolyte”. Robert - “ Didn’t receive message, please repeat” - Self:- “Trogdolyte Trogdolyte usually usually spelt spelt Troglodyte Troglodyte. Shall shall I I send send Troglodyte Troglodyte or or Trogdolyte Trogdolyte” Robert Troglodyte Troglodyte Troglodyte Troglodyte. Good night uuu-u- (this means ‘I am closing down and will reply only if you say anything that needs reply). Self:- “ok ok will will send send Troglodyte Troglodyte not not Trogdolyte Trogdolyte. Good night. Good night. uuu-u-”.

November 28th - December 12th

November 28th - December 12th

An uneventful period and I actually began to get a bit bored at times - a thing I would not have thought possible. All the best books have gone away from here, and one tends to get tired of technical reading.

After last international day we slept hard, so hard in fact that the alarm didn’t wake us up in the morning and we missed the weather report to Bear Island and didn’t get up till 10a.m. in time for the ionosphere run. What’s more, with the low temperature outside and the absence of a fire in the living room for such a long period we found everything frozen hard in the morning. The water in all the jugs had thick ice on top, developers had turned to mushy porridge and a winchester containing clean water was frozen almost solid and cracked.

The aurorae and clear days continued and then at the beginning of the month Brownie started communications with England. This time he surprisingly got through quite well to Johnson twice which was a very good piece of work and long messages went to and fro - so glad I was able to get one to Emily this way, for it was too expensive to send direct. Sorry not to have known where Cicely was. Afterwards we had to send Sandy’s messages up by phone, and since he hasn’t got a transmitter we never knew whether he had received it or not, so we sent it seven times, only to hear indirectly from Robert on the seventh day that Sandy had not been listening at that time but would do so in future. So another seven times! On Sunday 8th December Robert says that Andrew and Dan have reached A Station, so Andrew and John are back at last from Cape Leigh Smith safely. When Brownie asked if he should shoot Ayo, Andrew says “No, I am coming at once.” He left A Station with David next day, and we expected him daily afterwards - hoping that he would come before the international day, but there was no sign of him. It was fine and calm and clear of ice up to Monday evening but then the wind changed and blew ice in, and there was a big swell on the bay for some days.

Three nights recently Bear Island has taken Christmas messages for us at night. Heard my Bach Fugue from Moscow one evening, and on another night one of the Bach suites that we have on the gramophone from the same station.

Listened in to the Oxford v Cambridge rugger match: fading bad, but an exciting match to listen to; imagined Professor watching it - he nearly always does.

October 23rd - November 14th contd

Meanwhile Ionoark and Ozonoark are growing, but not in intelligence and are almost as frightened as ever. They will just eat out of your hand or lick your finger, but you can’t get near enough to them to pat them. It’s a pity for they are pretty little creatures. Spjaet’s leg is quite recovered - he is a nice dog - and Ayo is well too, but he is a big surly dog and nobody likes him. All Upik’s nine puppies are still alive and lively but we can’t think of names for them, but at any rate they are almost indistinguishable from one another.

Sandy and Archie stayed until 24th when it was calm enough for them to go off. It had been a most pleasant visit for us; they were both extremely helpful too, preparing meals etc, so that we had more time at our disposal than ever before.

They went off about midday on a cloudless day, and it was very light, though the sun had set finally 5 days earlier. Since then, however, it has been gradually getting darker, and at noon on a cloudy day we almost need a torch for walking along to the meteorological station. At the end of October and beginning of November we had a number of clear evenings and nights often with beautiful aurorae. (These kept one up late several times and I got into the habit of finding it difficult to get up in the morning, but am getting over that.) Then as soon as I started taking regular auroral observations we have ceased to see them - mostly because it is nearly always cloudy now. The moon sometimes shines now, and then it is brighter than at noon. This morning was really heavenly for it was absolutely cloudless and there was a glow in the South tinged pink below, and higher up Venus was shining more brilliantly than one would think possible, and higher up the ¾ full moon was illuminating the whole scene. It has been very warm all this time - just below freezing point or a bit above it. Even taking the early morning readings just after getting out of a warm bed is a pleasure when we have one of our clear mornings.

At the end of October we had a strong wind from the S.E. but very warm, and the snow thawed even in the bigger drifts. It looked as if there might be quite a difficult water problem to solve, but we managed to collect several beautifully clear lumps of ice from the shore. We thought the stream might start flowing again, but though there were many pools in the course the flow was too small. Before you come North you think it’s easy to get water - you just melt snow - but you have to go out and get in four or five buckets full of snow and then laboriously melt it down to get but one bucket of water. It took about 20 bucketfulls of snow to get enough water to wash all our dirty handkerchiefs and three dirty towels. That washing, by the way, was a great success; the things were black when they went in and came out really (or nearly) white.

We have had more time for things about the house now - Sandy and Archie were so helpful that while they did many of the ordinary things like cooking that we always have to do, we had time to make up arrears. I had a short cooking spell and made a Barmbrack for Hallowe’en; it never rose but we ate it with relish nevertheless. Next day I made two (and a half which we ate that night) plum puddings, but it remains to be seen whether these are a success or not. Dan has taken one for himself and Robert up on the ice-cap. Another event has been our cutting one another’s hair on the first of November - a first since leaving England.

On November 2nd as we were at lunch we were surprised to hear footsteps in the hall. It was Dan, and Karl was down with the skiff in the harbour. They had not brought us more dogs to look after - to our relief - but instead had brought us two white foxes - such pretty little things, and I’m sure they’ll be less trouble than a dog. Next day was spent in making more comfortable and safer cages for them - in the meteorological office boxes that had the Stevenson screens served admirably, But the wiring was a long job and Karl insisted on doing nearly all. The first was not very successful, but with the second he tried another method which was more tedious but better. The next job was to get the foxes from their travelling cages into the new ones. Karl managed the vixen and in doing so got a bit of a bite, so I volunteered to do the fox. It’s not as easy as it sounds as you cannot open the lid much in case he escapes, and if you stick your hand in he merely bites at it. I made several unsuccessful grabs at him and got him in the end by letting him bite one hand ( I was wearing gloves so he didn’t bite very deep) and he hung on so tight that with the other hand I could catch him round the neck, and then it was just a case of putting him into the cage and getting him to let go of my hand, which he did quite willingly. After that Karl showed us how to make fox traps, and we helped him to make some.

Next day - a gloriously clear day with a beautiful brilliant moon - Karl and Dan went into Zeipel Bay to put up some traps there, and came back with two plump eider ducks for Christmas. We thought they had all gone by now. Next day Karl began making his ‘automatical beer shoot’ - a simple contrivance in theory; the bear just tries to take away a piece of blubber attached to a wire, to the other end of which the trigger of the rifle is attached, and it shoots him through the head.

Karl Bengtssen

One unpleasant occurrence was on Nov 11th when I lit the fire all the smoke came out in the front, and we had to sweep the chimney by climbing on the roof and push down several poles lashed together, and a coal sack tied on the end. It was successful but we must sweep it more frequently when it is fine for it would be a very unpleasant and even dangerous job in stormy weather.

On the morning after the international day there was an opportunity for Karl and Dan to get away; it was calmer and the ice conditions in the bay seemed favourable. They began getting the boat ready but didn’t take the precaution of shutting up Spjaet and Ayo who saw what was happening and refused to be caught. In vain we tried to round them up and catch them but not till the afternoon was Spjaet taken in by a piece of meat, and in the meantime the tide had brought back ice and it was impossible to leave.

The next few days were rather unpleasant - Dan was impatient to get off, and he and Karl had never been able to get on together and it blew up into a storm. Dan, possibly not intentionally, and Brownie have always treated Karl as a social inferior and a servant; Karl would not stand for this saying that he was a respected man in Norway and in his country he was as good a man as anybody else, and that by their behaviour to him Dan and Brownie have shown that they are not gentlemen. This is in a sense true, for Brownie actually said to me that we all had to pay to come on the expedition and since on the other hand Karl is paid, we have a right to regard him as a servant - ugh! the British Army. Both sides were justified to a certain extent, and it was all most unpleasant - the first real quarrel we have had - and we were therefore glad when on Monday 18th the sea quietened down, and by pulling the boat overland to the other side of our point they found their way through the ice. I like both of them individually and each of them is easy to get on with, but together they are intolerable.

Daniel Godfrey

The moon set about that time, but even now we were surprised how light it still is sometimes, especially when there are no clouds about. I never think of putting on the torch when going over to the hut or when taking readings except actually to read the instruments. (Our torch is without doubt the world’s worst; it has never gone a complete day without going wrong: these super Ever Readys are hopeless.) Brownie and I went along to the north along the coast for a bit the afternoon the day the others left and lay a long time on a rock under the clear sky without being a bit cold - in late November in the Arctic!

Then on 19th and 20th it snowed hard so that going along to take the readings I kept on falling knee deep into snow drifts. It was when Bear Island questioned our report for amount of snowfall that I discovered that I had made a mistake in the reading, and all our snowfalls up to now have been reported ten times bigger than they really were!

One evening we had a talk with Bear Island over the wireless; there are three of them at the meteorological and wireless station and all along have been frightfully nice and helpful to us.

We went along to put up the near fox-traps which had been blown down, one afternoon with the Tilley lamp and had great fun as we kept on falling into very deep snow. It’s not at all unpleasant as the snow is so dry. At that time I was wearing pants and flannel trousers, shirt, Shetland pullover and lumber jacket. Komager on feet.

Suddenly on the 27th it cleared overhead and the temperature fell to 0℉ with a strong wind. It was an international day and not such a pleasant one, for not only did we have to work the ionosphere every two hours, but I also had to work the ozone spectrograph and also observe and photograph the aurorae which were strong that day. In addition there was all the developing fixing and washing of the records, the usual meteorological program and all cooking, water production etc. Sitting and standing about outside it was cold - our vitality must have been low - and I had to pile on clothes - more stockings another pull-over and windproofs on top. It’s a pity we had all the scientific work, for it would have been a lovely time for a walk, and the ice was forming and making eerie squeaks and grating noises. Suddenly Ayo jumps up and ‘woofs’ (a husky cannot bark properly) and I saw what looked like a very large white dog run away out to sea on the ice. Whether it was a bear or not I cannot say; it seemed too small, and the ice didn’t look as if it would have borne a bear, but I can’t see what else it could have been. Ayo’s annoyance is a testimony that I wasn’t dreaming.

Ayo is still at large. We couldn’t catch him for Karl to take away, and he bit Brownie in the hand when he nearly caught him one day. He is an unpleasant dog. However if he is going to keep bears away we will be pleased. Though bear meat is badly wanted for the dogs and the ‘automatical beer shoot’ is for that purpose, and though the skin is valuable, we personally have no desire to meet one in the dark time when we are out taking readings. Perhaps we may get good hunting in the spring. Ozonoark and Ionoark are shut up and just sleep, but Upik’s nine black puppies are getting bigger and make such a noise that the dog house is rather reminiscent of the parrot house - but smells like a dog-house!

I have taken charge of the foxes; they both seem well still: Matilda is a bit frightened and tries to get out all the time, but Leonidas is merely defiant but stays at the entrance of his inner house - in his thermopylac - guarding his Reloponesus - and snarls and growls so prettily.

October 23rd - November 14th

October 23rd - November 14th

The saddest event to record is the death of little Annadark. For some days she had not been her usual self. We thought she was just a little sulky as we had to chase her away from the foxes at times. On the 8th she seemed more like her old self and had a howling match with me, but when we didn’t notice her next day, we never expected to find her dead. It was a great loss, and if she was a bit spoilt, she was a grand little beast; she was playful and friendly and very often showed a lot of pluck. More than once when Brownie and I started off for a ramble several of the dogs would come, but they soon dropped behind, and only Annapig followed all the way. She would often howl and whine when she came to a place she thought she couldn’t get past, but eventually she always overcame all the obstacles on her own accord. The other day we went further up a gully than we have been before; we wanted to reach the top but found it more difficult than we expected; Annapup was a bit scared and went further than us by a most difficult way. We turned back but she couldn’t face going down and tried to go up instead and we had to catch her and carry her down or pass her from one to the other when coming down. She was an ugly little puppy, more like a pig than a dog. She must have picked up something poisonous about the camp. She was just 4 months old.

Sept 11th to October 23rd contd.

David, Dan and Andrew were to return to the Advance Base next day to get B station established as soon as possible. A station was really set up now, and Robert and Sandy were up there at this time. Unfortunately three dogs have been lost in crevasses - Bamse, Isijak and alas! poor Merkujuk. What a sad end to our beloved Woolly Bear.

We needed help during the Monday - Tuesday international day as it was a special Equinox study and we took runs every hour. So what we finally decided was that we should all go to the Advance Base for the day - as Brownie and I had had no change of air since we had found Hansigne’s puppies, and that Dan should return with us in the evening. So at noon we told Bear Island we would have no report for them in the evening, and we all set off. The scenery all looked so different from the boat, and we got an idea of what a fine lump of a hill it is at the bottom of which we live - it looks very like the Roddev (?). I took the tiller most of the way going, and soon we could see the ice-cap more clearly, and the small ice-cap on Mt. Franklin showed up very white. After rounding Dog Point we ran into a more sheltered bay at the bottom of which lay the Advance Base. This is a queer little hut - Karl’s old valley hut moved over and a bit added on - only 15 ft long by 5 broad, but 6 to 8 ft high, and anything from 3 to 5 people living there at one time. It was nice to see Archie again, and also all the dogs that came out to meet us. With thicker coats they looked so different and I hardly recognised any of them. We brought Merratark with us and she was glad to see all her boy friends again and quite forgot her Annapup!

The hut is delightfully situated at the bottom of this Advance Base bay, quite near the foot of the dead glacier leading up on to the west Ice, and, what I appreciated more than anything - on flat ground so that one could run about, a thing we cannot do at the base. We were fed there - how nice not to have to get one’s own meal for a change. Then we started off a bit late, as Brownie had a schedule with Advent Bay at 11p.m. and as soon as we got properly out into the bay round Dog Point we found that the sea had got up and it was pretty rough. Luckily we were steering straight into the waves so that though we pitched badly and the propellor came out of the water at times we were never in danger of being swamped - we didn’t even have to bale at all. Of course I was sick after a bit and it was very cold going into the N.W. wind and the spray froze solid on to any object to which it was driven by the wind, but Brownie was marvellous and sat at the helm all the time and we got in just before 11.15p.m. when the schedule was due to finish; we rushed in but we couldn’t get contact with LGS. Dan stayed with us till the following Wednesday helping us with the ionosphere and a lot with the cooking; he had to return alone and it was a distinctly nasty sea, but he managed it all right.

We were just going off to bed early after an International Day on the 10th Oct. when Dn came in. He and John had come over to fetch some things, but with a strong S.E. wind it was too rough - certainly in the dark - to bring the boat into our harbour, so they had gone round the point to the shelter in our N. bay, and Dan came ashore for help. Even then we couldn’t all pull the boat up, because there was nothing firm to attach the tackle to, so they used a hydrogen cylinder as an anchor and let the boat ride in the sheltered water. Next day they brought the boat into the harbour, and we pulled it up. They made a false start a day or so later, but having loaded the boat decided it was too rough and stayed till the next day. They said they were determined to go off this time, and we got the boat into the water, but it got rougher as the reindeer and coal were loaded in and the thin rope that was holding the bow broke and the boat was thrown all over the place; we then had a long struggle trying to prevent its being thrown on the rocks and to get it ashore again. We were all waist deep in the cold water (30℉), John holding the bows with waves breaking over his head, and Dan fell over once. At last we manoeuvered it so that the stern was on the slipway and we got it up with the tackle. But all the contents of the boat were soaked through - chromometer, watches, aneroids, theodolites, wireless time signal set etc, and the bottom of the sea was strewn with Silver Bud cheeses. They resolved now that they would wait for a really calm day before venturing out again. Next day it calmed suddenly in the evening and they went off, tho’ we hear that the motor failed and they had to row to land and then walk in sea boots up a steep cliff and then a long way overland to the Advance Base - carrying Hansigne a lot of the way.

On Friday 18th. Oct night we heard a noise outside. We were expecting Sandy, and went out and found him and Archie pretending to be bears.

Sept 11th to October 23rd contd.

The boat party - John, David and Karl - returned on Sept 14th - they had come back a bit earlier than expected owing to bad surveying conditions and also because it was getting late for Karl to get his traps ready. The boat was a wonderful sight as it came in; the motor had broken down and they had to sail the last bit home. They also had on board 14 reindeer carcasses, several seals and several stoves and much wood they had collected from other huts on the island. The boat was deep in the water and its a good thing it wasn’t rough. they seem to have had a successful time and made a good survey of the coast to the east as far a Rijps Bay.

On the 16th David and John departed to the Advance Base to make a dog house there, leaving Karl with us. He had to make a hut for himself to live in on the other side of the bay, and, poor man, he only had a few big pieces of wood and no long nails. “Ach, the pins, without you can’t do nothing” he would say, but with his few boards and some packing cases he made a most ingenious hut, about 6ft square with a sloping roof from 4 to 6 ft high; in it he got a bunk, a table, chair and stove.

The interior of Karl's hut

But the funniest thing was to see it taken away; on the 20th David returned with Dan and Andrew (leaving John at Advance Base) in the big boat and the outboard and they all helped with the transportation. Since it had been made of scraps he had to make it all in one piece and couldn’t take it to bits again, so the whole house had to be shipped intact.

taking the hut to the boats

They lashed the big boat to the whale boat and tied the house to planks over the two boats and eventually got off. It was quite roughish and it looked most unsafe as we watched it leave the base with the whale boat shipping a lot of water, but after a great deal of anxiety they got it safe to the other side of the bay, baling as hard as they could all the way.