102 



WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



out to fifteen feet, and we should probably have cut out a 

 prosaic rectangular chamber, but that we found that the floor 

 of almost impenetrable frozen kenyte gravel sloped up very 

 steeply. Moreover, the sun melted the " glacier " at a great 

 rate, so that we had to leave a fairly thick roof. These 

 restrictions produced a very pretty style of architecture — a 

 sort of double crypt with a central partition, and gentle, 

 sweeping curved roof, like an opened cockle-shell lying with 

 the convex sides uppermost. The sunlight filtered through 

 the roof and entrance wall, making the ice look like alabaster. 

 It was hard work chipping the ice. We were helped by 



Sketch of two grottoes cut in glacieret near the hut, January 15, 191 1. 



a few layers of dust mixed with skua feathers — representing 

 very ancient surfaces — along which the ice broke readily. 

 One half was covered with a rough flooring, and on this 

 were deposited a hundred carcases of sheep given by the 

 New Zealand farmers. In the other half a hundred penguins 

 occupy one corner, and later we shall add seal-meat. 



A little nearer the hut the physicists excavated an [_-shaped 

 grotto, of severely rectangular cross section, and lacking those 

 picturesque sweeps in the roof which were necessary in the 

 other cave. It penetrates the " glacier " for about twenty- 

 five feet, and is entered by an aperture some three feet high. 

 One feels very like a rabbit entering its burrow, but this 



