208 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [June 



Sunday, June 4. A calm and beautiful day. The account 

 of this, a typical Sunday, would run as follows: Breakfast. A 

 half-hour or so selecting hymns and preparing for Service whilst 

 the hut is being cleared up. The Service: a hymn; Morning 

 prayer to the Psalms; another hymn; prayers from Communion 

 Service and Litany; a final hymn and our special prayer. Wilson 

 strikes the note on which the hymn is to start and I try to hit 

 it after with doubtful success ! After church the men go out with 

 their ponies. 



To-day Wilson, Bowers, Cherry-Garrard, Lashly, and I 

 went to start the building of our first ' igloo.' There is a good 

 deal of difference of opinion as to the best implement with which 

 to cut snow blocks. Cherry-Garrard had a knife which I de- 

 signed and Lashly made, Wilson a saw, and Bowers a large 

 trowel. I'm inclined to think the knife will prove most effective, 

 but the others don't acknowledge it yet. As far as one can see 

 at present this knife should have a longer handle and much 

 coarser teeth in the saw edge perhaps also the blade should 

 be thinner. 



We must go on with this hut building till we get good at 

 it. I'm sure it's going to be a useful art. 



We only did three courses of blocks when tea-time arrived, 

 and light was not good enough to proceed after tea. 



Sunday afternoon for the men means a ' stretch of the 

 land.' 



I went over the floe on ski. The best possible surface after 

 the late winds as far as Inaccessible Island. Here, and doubtless 

 in most places along the shore, this, the first week of June, may 

 be noted as the date by which the wet, sticky salt crystals be- 

 come covered and the surface possible for wood runners. Be- 

 yond the island the snow is still very thin, barely covering the 

 ice flowers, and the surface is still bad. 



There has been quite a small landslide on the S. side of 

 the Island; seven or eight blocks of rock, one or two tons in 

 weight, have dropped on to the floe, an interesting instance of 

 the possibility of transport by sea ice. 



Ponting has been out to the bergs photographing by flash- 

 light. As I passed south of the Island with its whole mass 

 between myself and the photographer I saw the flashes of mag- 

 nesium light, having all the appearance of lightning. The light 



