Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/510

in temperature which ranged from minus 20 to the lowest of minus 29. In the daytime, when the sun had reached its full height, the temperature would rise almost to zero.

On the night of the 7th and morning of the 8th of November we made the old Bluff Depôt in 79° South and re-built it, placing a new flag of black bunting on the pole. Here we left two boxes of dog biscuit for the dogs returning on their journey back from the south. The surface again continued good, and never in any previous experience had it been so hard and good as far south as this.

On the night of the 8th and 9th we continued over this same good surface, before a slight north-easterly wind and a cold day. The dogs had now again begun to fail. They seemed to lack enthusiasm and spirit; I believe that in their case they had had too much work upon the Barrier and were spiritless and easily depressed by the lack of anything to see. In the previous year we had had certain 'cuts' of land for the Bluff Depôt and Corner Camp. It was quite easy to see from these that both camps had changed their positions owing to the gradual movement of the Barrier, year by year. Approximately, and judging very roughly, the movement in either case had been about half a mile for the year.

On the night of the 9th and 10th we came again to a curious phenomenon of the Barrier surface. As the mules proceeded ahead of us loud crackling roars could be heard from time to time. These were caused by a subsidence of the surface over a large area, as an animal or man trod upon it. The depth of the subsidence was only a fraction of an inch, but the resulting report was exceed-