i 9 n] THE BLIZZARD 31 



came to reckon up afterwards we had everything except the bot- 

 tom piece of the cooker and the top of the outer cooker. The 

 former was left on the top of the cooker, the latter was in its 

 groove. We never regained them. The most wonderful thing 

 of all was that our finnesko were lying where they were left, 

 which happened to be on the ground in the part of the tent 

 which was under the lee of the igloo. Also Birdie's private bag 

 was there, and a tin of sweets. 



Birdie brought two tins of sweets away with him as a lux- 

 ury, for we had no sugar in our ration : one we had on our arrival 

 at the Knoll ; this was the second, of which we knew nothing, and 

 which was for Bill's birthday, the next day. We started eating 

 them on Saturday, however, and the tin came in useful to Bill 

 afterwards. 



The roar of the wind in the igloo sounded just like the 

 rush of an express train through a tunnel. As it topped the rise 

 it sucked our roof cloth upwards, letting it down with tremendous 

 bangs. We could only talk in shouts, and began to get seriously 

 alarmed about our roof.] 



Inside the hut we were now being buried by fine snow drift, 

 which was coming through the cracks of the walls in fine spouts, 

 especially through the weather wall and over the door in the lee 

 wall. We tried to plug the inlets with socks, but as fast as we 

 closed one the drift came in by another, and heaps of soft drift 

 gradually piled up to 6 and 8 inches on everything. It seems that 

 the strong wind blowing over the roof of the hut sucked it 

 upwards and tried hard to lift it off, producing so much suction 

 into the interior of the hut that the fine drift came in everywhere 

 notwithstanding our day spent in packing every crack and cranny. 

 When there was no more snow drift to come in, fine black mo- 

 raine dust came in and blackened everything like coal dust. The 

 canvas roof, upon which we had put heavy slabs of icy snow, was 

 lifted clean off and was stretched upwards and outwards like a 

 tight dome and as taut as a drum. There was no chafe or fric- 

 tion anywhere except along the lee and wall top, and there we 

 plugged every space between the canvas and the wall stones with 

 pyjama jackets, fur mits, socks, &c. So long as the ice slabs re- 

 mained on the top, moreover, there was no flapping and every- 

 thing seemed fairly secure. Our only fear was that to allow of 

 the admission of so much drift and dust through the weather wall 



