Our excellent cook had just the right meal prepared for us--an enormous
dish of rice and figs, and cocoa in a bucket! The hut party were all
very delighted to see us, and the fittings and comforts of the hut
are amazing to the newcomers.
_Saturday, April_ 22.--Cape Evans, Winter Quarters. The sledging
season is at an end. It's good to be back in spite of all the losses
we have sustained.
To-day we enjoy a very exceptional calm. The sea is freezing over
of course, but unfortunately our view from Observatory Hill is very
limited. Oates and the rest are exercising the ponies. I have been
sorting my papers and getting ready for the winter work.
CHAPTER IX
The Work and the Workers
_Sunday, April_ 23.--Winter Quarters. The last day of the sun and
a very glorious view of its golden light over the Barne Glacier. We
could not see the sun itself on account of the Glacier, the fine ice
cliffs of which were in deep shadow under the rosy rays.
_Impression_.--The long mild twilight which like a silver clasp unites
to-day with yesterday; when morning and evening sit together hand in
hand beneath the starless sky of midnight.
It blew hard last night and most of the young ice has gone as
expected. Patches seem to be remaining south of the Glacier Tongue and
the Island and off our own bay. In this very queer season it appears
as though the final freezing is to be reached by gradual increments
to the firmly established ice.
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