THE WALRUS 165 



these rendered our task easier. The casks were 

 piled against a basalt boulder. We then built 

 a wall of big stones around them. The top of 

 the cairn was covered with flotsam after I had 

 introduced the decanter containing the document 

 into an empty cask which I covered with two 

 flat stones. Two floating pine trees were drawn 

 ashore and erected in the centre of the cairn. 

 Altogether, the cache was conspicuous and 

 quite capable of resisting the attacks of bears. 

 On one of the trunks, which rose high above the 

 cairn, Swensen carved deeply an arrow pointing 

 towards the interior, to indicate the direction 

 in which anyone who found it must search. 



Our task finished, we returned, making a 

 detour to visit the lagoon and search for the 

 nest of the ducks, which Merite was very eager 

 to examine. It was easily found at the water's 

 edge near the spot where I had killed the birds. 

 Like all ducks* nests, it was built on the shore 

 in the form of a truncated cone with a very 

 small entrance hole surmounted by a platform. 

 The nest was composed of layers of brown and 

 green mosses fastened one to the other. In fine, 

 it appeared for all the world like an enormous 

 cake of leaves. 



A strong south-easterly wind had sprung 

 up, piling the fog into banks and driving the 



