94 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [APRIL 



satisfactory. We had some little tins, which had contained 

 ' Oxo.' These, filled with melted blubber and a strand of rope 

 for a wick, gave quite a good light. A tin bridge was pierced 

 to hold the wick and laid across the top of the Oxo tin. We 

 luckily had one or two books ' David Copperfield,' ' The Life 

 of R. L. Stevenson,' and ' Simon the Jester ' being the favour- 

 ites and after hoosh Levick used to read a chapter of one of 

 them. Saturday evenings, we each had a stick of chocolate, and 

 usually had a concert, and Sunday evening at supper twelve 

 lumps of sugar were served out and we had church, which con- 

 sisted of my reading a chapter of the Bible, followed by hymns. 

 We had no hymn-book, but Priestley remembered several hymns, 

 while Abbott, Browning, and Dickason had all been, at some 

 time or other, in a choir, and were responsible for one or two 

 of the better known psalms. When our library was exhausted 

 we started lectures, Levick's on anatomy being especially 

 interesting. 



April 12. A calm day. Priestley and I went over to the 

 main depot to get some oil we had left there on the sledges, and 

 in the afternoon I went into the cove south of us to look for 

 seals. I saw one lying on some new ice, but I could not reach 

 him. I found an old penguin egg. It was four months old if it 

 had been laid this year, so I brought it back on the chance of 

 its having been frozen all the time, but no such luck. It was 

 hopelessly bad. 



April 13-17. Strong westerly wind, bitterly cold. 



April 20. The same wind continues, but slightly warmer. 

 A large piece had calved off the Drygalski ice tongue. I think 

 this northern face must be altering very fast, as its appearance 

 does not tally with the last survey. 



April 23. Another calm day. Browning and Dickason saw 

 two seals on floes, but were unable to reach them. The sea is 

 still open. On calm days a thin film of ice forms, but disappears 

 as soon as the wind gets up. The current also plays an important 

 part, I am sure, as in Arrival Bay, where there is no current, the 

 ice has formed, and is several feet thick, although the winds are 

 just as strong. 



April 24, 25, 26. Blowing a hard blizzard. On the 25th 

 Dickason dropped ' Y ' deck watch and broke the glass, but 

 * R ' and ' C ' are going strong, and with sticking-plaster and 



