19"] A BIRTHDAY FEAST 167 



'They'll keep till to-morrow, won't they?' was the tenor of 

 their remarks. 



Hitherto only a few odd legs and tails in some moss had 

 been recorded for the Insecta from 77 South. Later Deben- 

 ham found there were lots under many of the pebbles. Here 

 they clustered in a film of ice. As one turned a pebble to the 

 sun they would thaw out and crawl around for exercise. I got 

 a brush out of the medical chest and spread a sheet of paper 

 with seccotine. Then brushed them off carefully on to the paper 

 and so embalmed several thousand. We also got a few lively 

 little beggars about one quarter the size of the big blue ones. 

 The latter were nearly one millimetre long. 



The first of December was my birthday, and I received 

 congratulations. We ran up the sledge flags and our black and 

 red depot flags in honour of our arrival at our rendezvous. 

 Debenham said he couldn't let me cook on my birthday and 

 kindly offered to prepare the festive board. Meanwhile Gran, 

 Forde, and I brought in our other sledge from two miles back. 



Gran presented me with a bottle of prunes and one of Savoy 

 sauce, which he had lugged along from the hut in his personal 

 gear: a present only to be fully appreciated by those whose 

 menu was as limited as ours. 



About 5.30 a long streamer of smoke announced that the 

 famous stove was going, and Debenham produced a splendid 

 liver fry, followed by cocoa in very quick time. ' I could have 

 eaten two whacks of the fry easily.' After we were snugly in 

 our bags in the tent, I divided off half a box of fancy chocolates. 

 These were provided by Fry's for just such a contingency, and 

 we passed a resolution that the leader should write and thank 

 Fry's for their gift; for crunching those elaborate chocolates 

 brought one nearer to civilisation than anything we experienced 

 sledging. 



Next day was spent in getting meat from another seal and 

 in finishing the hut walls. From our rate of consumption I 

 reckoned that one seal would give us 2^2 meals of liver, and 

 ten meals of meat, while his blubber would cook about 30 

 meals. 



Debenham and I flensed the seal-skin on a block of ice. 

 This consisted in removing the white tallowy two-inch layer of 

 blubber from the outer leather with sharp knives. It was rather 



