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

efore I had remarked how vivid were the greens! It was an overcast day with odd
gleams of sunshine and in the morning we all went round to Gourlay by sea. There
was plenty of fresh ice in the sound and I steered a wavy course to avoid the lumps
of brash - some transparent and not to be detected except for the bump of them
striking the bows. A heavy swell with cross waves tossed us about, especially off the
headlands along our way. Unfortunately the day, which had looked promising,
worsened and soon we were in a thick snowstorm in the middle of Paal Harbour;
when it passed mist closed down to a few hundred feet, cutting off the summits of
the hills. The weather continued in the same vein, the temperature falling to -4.5°C at
one time; the sun came through in brief patches, in all 1.2 hrs of it; then a blizzard
raged and the temperature fell a degree; it continued unpleasant out.
At the end of the first week of February the temperature dropped to -6.7°C
during the day. The wind, which whipped up the snow into blinding furies, was
most unpleasant and I hoped there was more of summer to come! The bad weather
continued though, with temperature at -6°C and wind and drift snow all day. We
had now been having wintery weather for a long spell and were surely due for a
break soon? The previous year at that time we had had some very good days with
bright sunshine and high temperatures; now most of the snow below 300 feet was
gone except for the permanent snow drifts and very little ice to be seen. By the start
of March l949 the snow had begun to go under a steady downpour of rain. Under
those conditions the island bore similarities to certain parts of the Scottish highlands;
there were similar black crags with moss- and lichen-coloured patches, the same
areas of scree and boulders, the same mossy bogs. In fact apart from the large
number of icebergs around us, stranded where the shallower water began, and
masses of brash-ice in the bay it might have been a scene by any Scottish loch.
On 3 March heavy rain falling throughout the night had given rise to numerous
streams rushing down the slopes. By morning the downpour had ceased and the sun
acting on the sodden ground produced a blanket of mist. This was thick and
enhanced the heat of the sun so that in a very short time it was like walking through
a tropical hothouse. This sudden trick of the weather was rather pleasant; it was
good to hear the sound of rushing water and to see the streams, which were usually
but a sluggish brown, flow strongly. The moisture in the air rendered the colouring,
especially of the vegetation, more vivid and the crags and ice showed to great
advantage when they appeared through rifts in the fog. Later in the day I saw a
faintly coloured fogbow in Mirounga Flats. The mists were continually dispersing
and reforming and were, if anything, thicker when I reached the dory again and I
went a bit off course on the way back to base.
We were experiencing very high temperatures now: the absolute maximum for
the South Orkneys was 11°C and one day we considered we had at least that
(possibly it climbed higher but we had no maximum thermometer at the time). These
high temperatures had resulted in the worst weather yet, the visibility was 100 yards
or so and the rain was bucketting down; it was impossible weather. In summer it was
too often overcast and dull, though on the rare days when it was fine it could be
really warm and pleasant in the sun and surprisingly like parts of Scotland.
We had another example of the annoying properties of our weather on 4 March.
At 7 o’clock it was a beautiful morning and we decided to travel by boat across to a
peninsula on Coronation Island which we had not yet visited and which was fairly
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