Drifts four feet deep covered everything, and we had to be continually digging up our scanty stock of meat to prevent its being lost altogether.

We had taken advantage of the previous fine day to attempt to thaw out our blankets, which were frozen stiff and could be held out like pieces of sheet- iron; but on this day, and for the next two or three also, it was impossible to do anything but get right inside one's frozen sleeping- bag to try and get warm.

Too cold to read or sew, we had to keep our hands well inside, and pass the time in conversation with each other.
"The temperature was not strikingly low as temperatures go down here, but the terrific winds penetrate the flimsy fabric of our fragile tents and create so much draught that it is impossible to keep warm within.
At supper last night our drinking-water froze over in the tin in the tent before we could drink it.

It is curious how thirsty we all are." Two days of brilliant warm sunshine succeeded these cold times, and on March 29 we experienced, to us, the most amazing weather.

It began to rain hard, and it was the first rain that we had seen since we left South Georgia sixteen months ago.