Saturday Feb 15th.

Another beautiful quiet day. First excitement was when Brownie saw a bear on the coast to the South. He and John armed themselves and went after it, but the bear went faster and they never got within range. They noticed a bird when they were out - the first this year.

Later in the morning John sent up one of his balloons at the end of a string just as a trial - he had fortunately found the key of the hydrogen cylinders after a long search. The first balloon was seized and punctured by Ionoark who was chased at great speed by John before she gave it up. The next was kept from the dogs though the little blacks swarmed in masses all around, and was slowly inflated. When about 3 ft. in diameter John released it, and it rose rapidly moving at first slightly to the North though the surface wind was gentle from the North. Then after ascending vertically for some time it met a higher current from the North at about 250 feet and drifted South. So far, so good. Next it was to be pulled in on the winch, (ie. a sledge wheel.) John was most proficient at this till Brownie put in a hand and then it went so fast that the string ran off the rim and got so hopelessly entangled round the axle that they had to cut the string and knot it. Then John brought it in at a great pace, but was so concentrating on his swinging style that he neglected to watch the balloon and continued winding as the latter rapidly approached the earth. It rushed into the staple through which the string was guided, broke the string, and reversed its direction of motion. In a few minutes it was out of sight towards the ice-cap. Robert has not seen it.

We have been out of whale-meat meal for the last few days and the Colonel, the Oarks and the Little Blacks have to be fed on bully. The latter are getting pugnacious and when I take the met. readings there are eight mouths eating and thirty-two feet scratching at my trousers. Euphemia continues to be especially friendly, but she is rather an outcast from the family. It must have been fine sledging today, and the others should be back in a few days.

Have been lazy and morose lately; must wake up, so started energetically on a skeleton for suggested chapter in book on base-camp, and wrote till late.

Sunday Feb. 16th.

It's always Sunday here. Took drastic measures with the hygrograph and thermograph both of which at this time give endless trouble and practically no results. They should be better now. Though rather misty and dull, I could chop firewood in the bedroom soon after noon without artificial light - a distinct advance. John went up Snotoppen to ski, but got little and got lost on the way home; Brownie went up the glacier later, but I practised skiing on our nursery slope and made a little improvement thanks to a suggestion of Brownie's. Afterwards wrote up book chapter hard. Clear at night with Polaris and Aurora working.

I win a moral victory; it's a curious habit of almost all members of the expedition when anybody does anything for anybody or for the common weel to ejaculate "marvellous" or "wonderful" or "wizard", to which I always reply with the proverb "Praise in departing." The loaves I made this time brought forth the usual comments, but there is an enormous cavern in the middle of each surrounded by a wet layer of unbaked dough. Now I fancy there will be refusals.

Monday Feb. 17th

An absolutely epic day. At first pottered about a bit, rearranging the things around the fire so as to find a new place near the fire for the saennegras. Then after the ionosphere run John and I decided to go for a walk North, putting up the fallen traps on the way. I wanted to try out my finneskos. John decided to get the automatic rifle working as a defence weapon so we didn't get off till soon after noon.

It had been a glorious morning with only a few cirrus streaks in the South. The wind was getting up as we set out, but we had our backs to it. Just as we were looking for the first trap John said, "There's a bear" and there it was galloping easily but quickly from an iceberg on the bay ice towards the shore.

John has a bad leg, so I went back for the revolver - he had the automatic rifle - and to tell Brownie to come along when he had finished with Bear Island. Ran hard both ways, and John had walked on looking for him. We soon found old tracks of his following John's tracks of yesterday, and then struck the ones he had just made. We followed them to land and then they went along the bay ice round a point. We went ahead warily and then found the tracks going to land. Here we lost them and scanned the screes and cliffs; I saw a yellow patch half way up a snow slope and suggested it was he. John didn't seem to see it and I never trust my eyes so we walked on. Then I saw the tracks going up to the yellow rock and just at the same time John saw it and it got up and glissaded down the slope towards us. We cocked our guns for he was evidently curious. He walked along the shore towards us, and then mounted a high ice-covered rock. He faced us from the top, and raised his head high in the air, then lowered into his paws, up and down. We decided to shoot simultaneously; mine failed to explode - but John made a marvellous 40 yard revolver shot. Standing high on the rock the bear just collapsed and fell off head first. We approached carefully and John put in two more bullets for safety, but there is little doubt but that he was dead. As a matter of fact he turned out to be a she.

It was a really great event. Then of course we had no knives, so I went back for some and some rope, meeting Brownie on the way. When I got back I found they had moved her without a rope, and had dropped her down the tide crack. However one leg was above the surface and we got a rope round it and fortunately got her up on to the ice. What an anti-climax it would have been if we had lost her in the end. Then we proceeded to skin her under John's directions tho' he had never done a bear before. Brownie left after a bit to put on komagers - he only had climbing boots on - and to fetch an axe and John and I finished the skinning. Not half a messy as I expected, and the warm flesh and blood were very warming to cold hands. When Brownie returned we decided after all to finish the cutting up at the Base. So we pulled her along with ropes, and when we got to the Base cut off the legs and head and stowed them and the carcass on top of the porch and with difficulty we slung the skin up on the meat (?) rock. Just as we finished Brownie saw the sledges approaching and in a few minutes they were in. After that it was a confusion of voices and they all looked tired; they had had a terrible journey with practically no sleep owing to inadequate tents and li-los, so that their sleeping bags got soaked through.

Bear stew for supper - our first fresh meat for a long time, a good stew but the meat itself, though tender, was rather tasteless. Long talks about future plans etc for the rest of the day. Dreng has been almost killed by the Blacks.