i9"I THE LARDER THREATENED 99 



increase of ration gives us something to look forward to and 

 so helps to pass the intervening days. 



The only occurrence which was worthy of note before the 

 end of June was an unpleasant one involving much extra work. 



On June 29 we found our seal carcases nearly buried in salt 

 ice, although they were some 200 yards back from the seaward 

 edge of the icefoot. Evidently the spring tides had been the 

 cause of this, and we had a lot of trouble digging the bodies out. 



July 4. Southerly wind, with snow, noise of pressure at sea 

 and the ice in the bay breaking up. Evidently there is wind com- 

 ing, and the sea ice which has recently formed will go again like 

 the rest. It is getting rather a serious question as to whether 

 there will be any sea ice for us to get down the coast on. I only 

 hope that to the south of the Drygalski ice tongue, where the 

 south-easterlies are the prevailing winds, we shall find the ice has 

 held. Otherwise it will mean that we shall have to go over the 

 plateau, climbing up by Mount Larsen, and coming down the 

 Ferrar Glacier, and if so we cannot start until November, and 

 the food will be a problem. 



We made a terrible discovery in the hoosh to-night; a pen- 

 guin's flipper. Abbott and I prepared the hoosh. I can remem- 

 ber using a flipper to clean the pot with, and in the dark Abbott 

 cannot have seen it when he filled the pot. However, I assured 

 everyone it was a fairly clean flipper, and certainly the hoosh was 

 a good one. 



July 5. A heavy snowstorm from the S.E., the first one 

 we have had from that quarter since the hut was ready. It 

 blocked the entrance completely. Consequently the air got pretty 

 bad. The primus went out and the lamps burnt dimly until we 

 dug through the drift and let in fresh air. Priestley and I cleared 

 the door, but it was so thick with snow it soon drifted up again. 

 It felt wonderfully warm out and we got quite hot digging. Dur- 

 ing the night we kept night watch two hours each, the watchman's 

 duty being to keep the entrance from being blocked, as it was 

 useless trying to keep the chimney clear. In fact snow came 

 down so fast it put the blubber fire out, and the smoke rendered 

 the hut almost untenable, so that we had to cook the evening 

 hoosh with the primus and use most of our precious oil. 



July 7. Blew hard all night, drifting up the outer door com- 



