September 16, 1975: Tuesday

Jim and Mike and Nartsiss and us go out to the Erebus Ice Tongue. It’s the part of the glacier that has gone out to sea. We drive past Turtle Rock. It is a very good name.

We walked all the way across the ice tongue. It’s blue and has real crevasses in it filled with snow, so you had to be careful where you stepped. I almost fell in one. The north side had layers of wind blown kenyite glass imbedded in the glacier. On the south side there are ice caves with beautiful icicles and things. What we wanted were intermittent layers of yellowish-brown ash in the ice. We collected some while Nartsiss got a core sample from the top. The generator wouldn’t start, and got busted, so we had to do the coring by hand. The new suits are warm.

After three and a half meters, the weather got miserable. We descended, packed the gear, and got the truck stuck. After a desperate drive to get the truck out of the snow and onto ice, into the whiteness we bumped along back to McMurdo. Unload and eat sandwiches.

Nartsiss was reading a Playboy. Jim said, “Is degenerate magazine, Nartsiss.”

Nartsiss nodded and said, “Da, degenerate.”

I go and lay down, then to supper (lunchmeat of all things). Dr. Dick is very complimentary about my age and ideas.

After supper is a meeting in the lab to plan for Thursday’s trip to Marble Point. We’ll have trouble with the weight.

It was Jack’s birthday. Sam Morgan stole his truck and we’ve hassled him about it all day.

They came to take the phone out of Cal’s office and put it into Dr. Treves’s. They couldn’t find the one in Cal’s office (it’s on the desk), so they just put a new phone in the office. That makes three. Not bad for only eight rooms.