168 SCOTT'S: LAST EXPEDITION [DECEMBER 
a troublesome task in which we were not assisted by the numer- 
ous skua gulls which surrounded us. This skin was one of three 
we required for the roof of the stone hut. 
Gran and Forde worked very energetically on the latter. 
Gran was so keen at lifting huge blocks of granite that I had 
to caution him against straining his back. We used a sledge 
for the roof tree, and sewed the skins together and then pulled 
them taut by heavy stones hung round the edges. Finally the 
hut looked quite snug with the smoke pouring out of the chimney 
(and also it must be confessed out of the front), and the tout 
ensemble was very like an Irish shebeen in Forde’s opinion. 
Gran was reading Jules Verne’s ‘ Mysterious Island’ this trip, 
so we named our sample of Polar architecture ‘ Granite House’ 
from that exciting melodrama. 
On the 3rd Gran and I set about placing a letter on the 
Rendezvous Bluff as Captain Scott instructed me. We climbed 
up one of the big couloirs about 500 feet and then got on to a 
projecting spur, where we fixed a stout bamboo pole in a crack 
3 feet deep in the granite—which just admitted the staff. I left 
a letter for Pennell as to our depot. We then hurried down the 
cliff and went out to slay another seal. We had a difficult time 
trying to pack the hide, blubber, and liver on the sledge. The 
rounded portions ran about all over the sledge. Gran swears 
they worked their way up hill and came out of the folds of 
skin in which we tied them. I threw some bits of meat into 
the ‘shear crack’ while washing the liver, and the water was 
soon full of amphipods. ‘These are humble relations of the 
shrimps, and Gran declared his intention of trying for bigger 
‘fish’ here if he could make a hook. However, we never had 
time to test this food supply. 
On the 4th I decided to climb the Bluff. First we skirted 
low cliffs, below which were large ‘ joint-channels ’ in the granite 
with carpets of thick fungus-like moss. These were green under- 
neath, but the tufts were still black, contracted and dryish. Then 
over crags to a slope of talus débris in which I found a large 
frondose lichen about 8 inches across with well-developed 
branches and pseudo-roots. We got to the top in an hour, and 
our doubts as to the height were justified. The Rendezvous 
Bluff was sixteen hundred feet high instead of 500 as we 
expected ! 
a EE eee 
