Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/108

slopes of the promontory on our right, all of which looked very much nearer than they actually were. The dawn on the eastern horizon was also exceptionally fine in colour, almost pure carmine in a very broad band, changing imperceptibly, but without any intermediate orange or yellow, into green and blue above. The peaks of the Western Range all caught pink lights reflected from the sky, and these shone up against the greyer pink foreglow behind them. None of them caught the actual sunlight yet.

The temp. was low, −55·3° in the morning, −63·2° to −61·8° in the afternoon, and on to the evening, with light easterly and north-easterly airs from time to time. [Apropos of the cold: we now got low temperatures once more, but −60° now hardly called for comment; in fact some nights of −60° we never even inquired the temperature.]

Once we saw a drift swirl suddenly spring into the air about 100 ft. high and sweep along the surface for a long way before it disappeared.

After lunch we had interesting views of the formation and dispersal of fog banks which formed from time to time all along the Hut Point promontory. There appeared to be a line along which the cold Barrier air met the warmer sea ice air of the north side. Fog resulted, which gradually rose and spread, and blotted out all the land ahead of us, and then as rapidly dispersed to the south, leaving the whole sky and air as clear and bright as before. This happened again and again with no formation of cloud south of the ridge.