Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

eflected in the writing.
Summer l948. We experienced strong gales, strong enough to rock the hut violently,
on occasion; fortunately it was tied down with thick cables. The bay was full of pack
one morning, but by the time I climbed to the ridge it had all been blown eastwards
through Normanna Strait. In Paal Harbour the pack was very dense but thinned out
rapidly to the east. These floes looked very old and ‘decaying’ under the water but
very fresh above; snow had fallen on old growlers (….) to a depth of a couple of feet
and only partly consolidated. Most of them were cracking across the top. Some very
large tabular bergs were moving up from the southeast in the current. Later that day
the pack moved out eastwards under the influence of a strong North-west wind
which brought snow. Next day there had been a heavy snowfall overnight and the
drifts of wind-blown snow were in parts quite deep.
Over the next few weeks the collection of tabular bergs off Gourlay Point showed
little decrease in numbers but individual bergs were becoming smaller as they broke
up. The pack moved into the bay and jammed tight in a belt along the coast from
Elephant Flats to Berryhead and our side of Billie Rocks. We had a message from Dr
Fuchs asking for daily ice reports with the morning meteorological observations. It
got colder, air temperature -7°C, at the end of the month and a light breeze made it
feel colder. The pack was all along the eastern shores now: larger floes and growlers
close inshore and a gradation outwards with very small particles on its seaward
border.
At the beginning of April the ice was densely packed to the South-east with some
large tabular bergs and on the horizon it appeared to be continuous. Numerous snow
petrels were flying amongst the pack. We hoped it was not closing in for the winter
as it could prevent the ship's return visit. The wind, after blowing very strongly all
night, stopped. Fine wind-blown snow had infiltrated through every crack and
cranny in the lab, Nissen and generator huts. The door of the Met hut blew open and
inside it was now one great snowdrift, which it took some time to remove. Influenced
by the pack ice the air temperature was now down to -10°C and thick snowstorms
made the ice observation impossible. We felt cold with the drop in temperature, but
acclimated again within a fortnight or so to the new norm.
So it continued, with pack and iceberg movements from day to day and weather
depressions passing through frequently. A blizzard hit us at daybreak on 10 April;
the air temperature was low that night -24°C and it was still very windy two days
later, with intermittent blizzards. The barometer was down to 950 millibars which
was the lowest we had yet seen, but the outside temperature was now 5.5°C. Two
days later came a still, calm morning with air temperature -11°C. By mid April, on a
lovely calm morning, Elephant Flats was pretty well iced over with only a small area
of open water in its centre. Ice cover to the south was 3 10ths pack and many small
bergs.
Autumn l948 A few days later the westerly wind had blown most of the pack
eastwards and it now formed a line from Reid Island south; our bay was clear for the
most part. The temperature rose that evening when it snowed, and then fell over the
next few days as the wind blew at gale force. By 19 April the morning temperature
was -9.5°C and rose a couple of degrees during the day; there were blizzards
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