1 68 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [DECEMBER 



a troublesome task in which we were not assisted by the numer- 

 ous skua gulls which surrounded us. This skin was one of three 

 we required for the roof of the stone hut. 



Gran and Forde worked very energetically on the latter. 

 Gran was so keen at lifting huge blocks of granite that I had 

 to caution him against straining his back. We used a sledge 

 for the roof tree, and sewed the skins together and then pulled 

 them taut by heavy stones hung round the edges. Finally the 

 hut looked quite snug with the smoke pouring out of the chimney 

 (and also it must be confessed out of the front), and the tout 

 ensemble was very like an Irish shebeen in Forde's opinion. 

 Gran was reading Jules Verne's ' Mysterious Island ' this trip, 

 so we named our sample of Polar architecture ' Granite House ' 

 from that exciting melodrama. 



On the 3rd Gran and I set about placing a letter on the 

 Rendezvous Bluff as Captain Scott instructed me. We climbed 

 up one of the big couloirs about 500 feet and then got on to a 

 projecting spur, where we fixed a stout bamboo pole in a crack 

 3 feet deep in the granite which just admitted the staff. I left 

 a letter for Pennell as to our depot. We then hurried down the 

 cliff and went out to slay another seal. We had a difficult time 

 trying to pack the hide, blubber, and liver on the sledge. The 

 rounded portions ran about all over the sledge. Gran swears 

 they worked their way up hill and came out of the folds of 

 skin in which we tied them. I threw some bits of meat into 

 the ' shear crack ' while washing the liver, and the water was 

 soon full of amphipods. These are humble relations of the 

 shrimps, and Gran declared his intention of trying for bigger 

 * fish ' here if he could make a hook. However, we never had 

 time to test this food supply. 



On the 4th I decided to climb the Bluff. First we skirted 

 low cliffs, below which were large ' joint-channels ' in the granite 

 with carpets of thick fungus-like moss. These were green under- 

 neath, but the tufts were still black, contracted and dryish. Then 

 over crags to a slope of talus debris in which I found a large 

 frondose lichen about 8 inches across with well-developed 

 branches and pseudo-roots. We got to the top in an hour, and 

 our doubts as to the height were justified. The Rendezvous 

 Bluff was sixteen hundred feet high instead of 500 as we 

 expected ! 



