"
I was up early--4 a.m.--to keep watch, and the sight was indeed
magnificent. Spread out before one was an extensive panorama of ice-
fields, intersected here and there by small broken leads, and dotted
with numerous noble bergs, partly bathed in sunshine and partly tinged
with the grey shadows of an overcast sky.
As one watched one observed a distinct line of demarcation between the
sunshine and the shade, and this line gradually approached nearer and
nearer, lighting up the hummocky relief of the ice-field bit by bit,
until at last it reached us, and threw the whole camp into a blaze of
glorious sunshine which lasted nearly all day.
"This afternoon we were treated to one or two showers of hail-like
snow. Yesterday we also had a rare form of snow, or, rather,
precipitation of ice-spicules, exactly like little hairs, about a third
of an inch long.
"The warmth in the tents at lunch-time was so great that we had all
the side-flaps up for ventilation, but it is a treat to get warm
occasionally, and one can put up with a little stuffy atmosphere now
and again for the sake of it. The wind has gone to the best quarter
this evening, the south-east, and is freshening."
On these fine, clear, sunny days wonderful mirage effects could be
observed, just as occur over the desert.
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