92 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [APRIL 



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 paraffin 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, i mug of penguin and seal hoosh and I biscuit. Sup- 

 per i l /2 mugs of seal, i biscuit and % pi nt f 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 



