20 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [JULY 



built up the walls, Bowers and I collected rocks and piled up the 

 outside of the walls with snow slabs and gravel. We had a pick 

 and a shovel to work with. 



[It was quite a question what it was to be called: in his 

 Diary Bill called it * Oriana Hut,' and the ridge the Oriana 

 ridge: we discussed ' Terra Igloo,' ' Bleak House,' ' The House 

 on the Hill.' 



Birdie gathered rocks from over the hill, nothing was too 

 big for him. Bill did the banking up outside. The stones were 

 good, the snow, however, was blown so hard as to be practi- 

 cally ice: a pick made little impression upon it, and the only 

 way was to chip out big blocks gradually by the small shovel. 



There was now little moonlight or daylight, but for the next 

 two days we used both to their utmost, being up at all times 

 by day and night, and often working on when there was great 

 difficulty to see anything: one day Birdie was digging with the 

 hurricane lamp by his side.] 



The hut was placed so as to escape the force of the southerly 

 wind under the moraine ridge. We were about 800 feet above 

 sea level. Our method of construction was to build four walls 

 of solid rock, leaving a small gap for a door in the lee end. 

 The weather wall was highest, and the breadth of the hut was 

 7^ to 8 ft, so that the 9-foot sledge rested across from wall 

 to wall as a cross rafter to support the canvas roof. The two 

 side walls were built up to the height of the weather wall at 

 the weather end, but were not so high by a couple of feet at 

 the door end. The length of the hut was about 10 ft. 



Against the outer side of the rock-walls were laid large 

 slabs of hard snow like paving stones, each having its icy wind- 

 swept surface outside. Between the slabs of snow and the rock 

 walls we shovelled moraine gravel. Over all this fell the canvas 

 roof, anchored by lanyards to heavy rocks all round, and bat- 

 tened down to its outer side again by a double banking of ice 

 slabs and gravel; finally, every crevice was packed in by hand 

 with soft snow until the whole wall was uniformly tight all 

 round. The work took us all the light we had of three days 

 to finish. The canvas roof was made so ample in size that it 

 came right down to the ground on the weather side and more 

 than half-way down all the other sides. This, we thought, could 

 not fail to make the walls tight when packed in and over as 



