96 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [MAY 



From now till the end of the month strong gales again re- 

 duced our outside work to a minimum, and most of our energies 

 were directed to improving our domestic routine. 



We have now a much better method for cutting up the 

 meat for the hoosh. Until now we had to take the frozen joints 

 and hack them in pieces with an ice-axe. We have now fixed 

 up an empty biscuit tin on a bamboo tripod over the blubber 

 fire. The small pieces of meat we put in this to thaw; the 

 larger joints hang from the bamboo. In this way they thaw 

 sufficiently in the twenty-four hours to cut up with a knife, and we 

 find this cleaner and more economical. 



We celebrated two special occasions on this month, my wed- 

 ding-day on the loth, and the anniversary, to use a paradox, of 

 the commissioning of the hut on the iyth, and each time the 

 commissariat officer relaxed his hold to the extent of ten raisins 

 each. 



Levick is saving his biscuit to see how it feels to go without 

 cereals for a week. He also wants to have one real good feed 

 at the end of the week. His idea is that by eating more blubber 

 he will not feel the : want of the biscuits very much. 



On May 25 we had an unpleasant experience that might 

 have been serious. Drift had blocked the funnel and shaft so 

 that the smoke from the blubber stove became unbearable and 

 we made up our minds to put it out. As a matter of fact it went 

 out, and we had the greatest difficulty in keeping the lamps alight. 

 This ought to have warned us the air was bad. 



In spite of this we lit the primus stove to cook the evening 

 hoosh, though we had the greatest difficulty in making it burn. 

 Just before hoosh was ready it went out, and all the lamps 

 followed suit. 



Three matches struck in succession did the same before we 

 realised there was no air. I groped for a spade, and crawling 

 along the shaft drove it through the drift, when a match burned 

 immediately, the primus stove gave us no trouble, and all went 

 well; but it was a lesson to us, and in future I kept a long 

 bamboo stuck through the chimney, and the wind keeping it 

 shaking maintained an air hole. When I fetched the bamboo 

 it was only about 10 yards from the entrance of the shaft, yet 

 the drift was so smothering and the night so dark, it was with the 

 greatest difficulty I could find it. 



