92 SCOTT’S LAST EXPEDITION [Apri 
April 9.—Warmer to-day. We saw a small seal on a floe 
but were unable to reach him. The bay remains open still. 
On the still days a thin film of ice forms, but blows out as soon 
as the wind comes up. In these early days, before we had per- 
fected our cooking and messing arrangements, a great part of 
our day was taken up with cooking and preparing the food, but 
later on we got used to the ways of a blubber stove, and things 
went more smoothly. We had landed all our spare parafin from 
the ship, and this gave us enough oil to use the primus for break- 
fast, provided we melted the ice over the blubber fire the day 
before. The blubber stove was made of an old oil tin cut 
down. In this we put some old seal bones taken from the 
carcases we found on the beach. A piece of blubber skewered 
on to a marline spike and held over the flame dripped oil 
on the bones and fed the fire. In this way we could cook 
hoosh nearly as quickly as we could on the primus. Of course 
‘the stove took several weeks of experimenting before it 
reached this satisfactory state. With certain winds we were 
nearly choked with a black oily smoke that hurt our eyes and 
brought on much the same symptoms as accompany snow 
blindness. 
We take it in turns to be cook and messman, working in 
pairs:—Abbott and I, Levick and Browning, Priestley and 
Dickason, and thus each has one day on in three. The duties 
of the cooks are to turn out at 7 and cook and serve out the 
breakfast, the others remaining in their bags for the meal. Then 
we all have a siesta till 10.30, when we turn out for the day’s 
work. The cook starts the blubber stove and melts blubber 
for the lamps. The messman takes an ice-axe and chips frozen 
seal meat in the passage by the light of a blubber lamp. A cold 
job this and trying to the temper, as scraps of meat fly in all 
directions and have to be carefully collected afterwards. ‘The 
remainder carry up the meat and blubber or look for seals. By 
5 P.M. all except the cooks are in their bags, and we have supper. 
After supper the cooks melt ice for the morning, prepare break- 
fast, and clear up. Our rations at this time were as follows :— 
Breakfast, 1 mug of penguin and seal hoosh and 1 biscuit. Sup- 
per 144 mugs of seal, 1 biscuit and 34 pint of thin cocoa, tea, or 
hot water. We were always hungry on this, and to swell the 
hoosh we used occasionally to try putting in seaweed, but most 
