194 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



they look for some days, for their hair is normally so thick 

 that it lends them a fictitious size. I assisted Meares to dig 

 the holes deeper, and build up barriers to the south. It was 

 pleasant to see how the rest and abundance of seal-meat soon 

 improved them out of all recognition. Many of them were 

 loosed when we went for a walk. They would start out with 

 us, and lend a touch of home to the dour landscape, but they 

 were not very companionable, and, except for brown Tsigan, 

 they always left us behind as too slow, and later bolted for 

 the hut. 



In a day or two our party swung into routine in the old 

 hut. We could not move more than a mile or so from Hut 

 Point. We had nothing here but fragments left over from 

 1902, and some sledging rations, and yet the time passed not 

 unpleasantly, for there were a thousand and one jobs to be 

 done. I will quote my diary fairly fully for 17th March, for 

 it was typical of the next few weeks. 



" We got up rather late, so that I read the thermometer 

 at 9 a.m. instead of 8 a.m. After that had breakfast of 

 porridge and a ripping ' hoosh ' of liver. Then a cup of 

 cocoa, to which three pills of Gran's saccharine gave a sweet 

 inky taste. I next sewed up a six-inch tear in my sleeping- 

 bag. I did not sleep well last night, nor did Scott, who was 

 next ; I will try fur inside to-night. It is blizzing again, and 

 I am glad I am not on the Barrier with Evans, Wright, and 

 the rest. 



" Then I pared some seal-skin soles thin (the fresh skin 

 is just like soft leather) and sewed them into the old finnesko 

 presented to me by Gran. We played "shut-eye" for a tin 

 of marmalade. [I ladled out a spoonful, and Scott, with shut 

 eyes, said whose it was ; and so on.] We had two and a half 

 spoons each, and as it was Keohane's birthday I gave him the 

 tin to scrape out. 



" At lunch we had a great discussion on Browning and 

 Tennyson. My simile comparing them to a rough rare 

 mineral and polished rubbish was not accepted ! Scott pre- 

 ferred Keats. Meares opened tins with my dagger in military 

 fashion, as he had learnt in South Africa [i.e. he made a 

 fulcrum of a bar of wood beneath the blade]. Scott tried to 

 improve the lighting by smearing blubber on the windows, 

 which at any rate made it easier to flake the fresh ice off each 



