January 1st

Brownie got through to Johnson splendidly this evening, and between 10.30pm and 2am got through all the messages that were to be sent. The most sensational message was one to Brownie from Martin Lindsay asking him to join a winter station at the North Pole 1937-38, taken there by the Graf Zeppelin.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Graf_Zeppelin

January 8th

There is another International day round and some time to write at last. Life is so different now with Andrew John and David here, they are absolutely ideal people to live with for though I like Brownie we have so little in common that in December I was really beginning to get bored with the life here. But so human and unselfish and amusing are the three new arrivals that these days since Christmas have been by far the best on the expedition, even though we are indoors all the time. It's the general conversation and mutual help that makes existence in such conditions so pleasant. Andrew and David have gone off to the advanced Base today and it's already beginning to be a bit dull!

On the other hand it's been an uninteresting series of days up to now; David concluded his developing by printing some of the better photos, and that ended the photographic week. It was grand for us to see the photos taken on the boat journey and on the ice-cap etc.

We've started betting too, tho' why I cannot tell, but "I'll put 8 squares (chocolate) on it" is a saying liable to come out at any time. There's so much chocolate that it's just dull to eat one's own ration, so that if at lunch you have neither gainings nor losings, you advertise "who'll put something on anything?" I won 32 squares over Christmas, but have generally lost since then.

On Jan 4th we went along to the local traps, as usual one was blown down and neither had caught anything. After that we thought we would run about on the bay ice and were running along - what a treat - when suddenly I put my foot down and didn't find the ice just where I expected to - like when you run downstairs and think there's one more step than there really is - and jolted my leg and fell over. I never thought it was at all bad, but when I had limped home Andrew said I had torn a ligament (or some such nonsense) and must be careful of water on the knee. So I have been firmly repressed these last few days and haven't been allowed to do lots of things that I easily could have managed. You feel such a beast when you do nothing in the way of collecting snow or coal etc. and I haven't taken meteorological readings since then - tho' this is perhaps justifiable for it's rather difficult uneven walking round the instruments.

The weather on all these days had been gradually improving though usually with poor visibility, and the others were constantly wondering whether they should go off to the Lady Franklin glacier to do some meteorology and glaciology. Nobody wanted to go: Sandy instructed John to do it, but as usual he gave no idea why the measurements were to be made, or how, and never considered where the instruments were to come from. I feel these days meteorological readings are not worth much, and general opinion was that it was just one of Sandy's ?things?

Moreover John was anxious for fine days so that he could 'fix' Northeastland astronomically. So Andrew decided that he and David should go, as David had done that sort of thing at A- station. Poor David, he has had an unsettled time and an extended stay at A, and evidently doesn't enjoy the thought of camping out at this time of the year, and was beginning to enjoy the luxury of the base, and certainly didn't want to go; every time it became clearer you could see his anxiety growing, and when it became cloudier and it was decided to postpone departure temporarily his whole face lit up!

Everybody has been very busy all this time - John and Andrew especially. Andrew at first had a lot of work with the dog harnesses and is now generally preparing for the Northern Journey, and is also writing part of the expedition book. He is an extremely hard but slow worker. John is wonderful the way he gets down to work and goes on with it quietly (but untidily) all the time with his tongue out. He did a lot of the dog harnesses at first, then with his upper air instruments in bad weather, and when fine he has built a fine observatory of packing cases with a 5in. theodolite on a pillar in the middle; in the last few days he has been making star observations and is settling the longitude of N.E. land as this is uncertain - the longitude of Spitzbergen is uncertain to an extent of a few seconds. John spent a long time worrying last night because he calculated we were 4 minutes, ie. 1ºE of where we thought we were; he could find no mistake in the calculation and concluded that we must have got the date wrong, as that would put things exactly right, but there was too much evidence against that theory. Finally he solved the problem during his sleep. David worked hard and continuously at the photographs for some time, and since then has been helping everybody else so that now Brownie and I have little to do.

On Monday Brownie and David went and visited the Zeipel Bay traps along the ice and were late home so I had to do the morse to Bear Island. I hardly distinguished myself, for though I got our report through I couldn't get the receiver to work, and only just heard him and couldn't read it. However it broke the ice; he sent very slowly so perhaps I'll be able to do it more in the future.

Andrew and David have just returned from the Advanced Base, having got there in 2½ hours and finding Sandy was full of no end of wild goose schemes, which Andrew quietly had to prove impossible to carry out. A leader with ideas and schemes and imagination is absolutely essential, but we would be wasting time and trying the impossible if it were not for Andrew's good sense. Sandy didn't mind a bit about the postponement of the Lady Franklin glacier trip.

Fun watching the dogs pull off the sledges for the first time. A very distinct glow in the South at noon.