AURORA AUSTRALIS.
it with his legs, as it bumped and jolted over the ‘sastrugi’; but frequently the muscular ex—captain of the Bartholemew’s Hospital Rugby Union Football Team, found that not all his thirteen stone weight could save him from being bucked right over the sledge, and flung on the névé on the other side. Fortunately no bones were broken, and we reached the nunatak at our first camp, six miles distant from Winter Quarters at Cape Royds, at about 7-30 a. m..
By this time there was every symptom of the approach of a blizzard, and already the snow was beginning to drift before a gusty south-easterly wind. This threatened soon to cut us off from all view of our winter quarters. We were beginning to feel dog tired: one of our tents had a large hole burnt in it, the oil supply was almost done, one of our primus stoves had been put out of action, as the result of our glissade; so we didn’t relish the prospect, under the circumstances, of weathering another blizzard in our tents. We decided therefore to make a dash for Cape Royds.
In the uncertain grey light of a windy sky, the ‘sastrugi’ did not show up in relief, and literally at about every twenty yards some member of the party stumbled, and fell sprawling over the snow.
At last we were gladdened by the sight of the
