354 THE END OF THE WINTER 



colour for a tent. We were soon agreed that a dark- 

 coloured tent was best, for several reasons: In the first 

 place, as a relief to the eyes. We knew well enough 

 what a comfort it would be to come into a dark tent 

 after travelling all day on the glistening Barrier surface. 

 In the next place, the dark colour would make the tent 

 a good deal warmer when the sun was up another 

 important consideration. One may easily prove this by 

 walking in dark clothes in a hot sun, and afterwards 

 changing to white ones. And, finally, a dark tent would 

 be far easier to see on the white surface than a light one. 

 When all these questions had been discussed, and the 

 superiority of a dark tent admitted, we were doubly 

 keen on it, since all our tents happened to be light, not 

 to say white, and the possibility of getting dark ones was 

 not very apparent. It is true that we had a few yards 

 of darkish ' gabardine," or light windproof material, 

 which would have been extremely suitable for this 

 purpose, but every yard of it had long ago been destined 

 for some other use, so that did not get us out of the 

 difficulty. ' But," said somebody and he had a very 

 cunning air as he uttered that " but ' ' but haven't we 

 got ink and ink-powder that we can dye our tents dark 

 with?" Yes, of course! We all smiled indulgently; 

 the thing was so plain that it was almost silly to mention 

 it, but all the same the man was forgiven his silliness, 

 and dye-works were established. Wisting accepted the 

 position of dyer, in addition to his other duties, and 



