igoa] OBTAINING WATER 217 



themselves according to the weather, they proceed to the ice- 

 quarry with a heavy sledge specially fitted for the work. The 

 harder and bluer the ice, the better it is adapted for melting 

 and the less fuel is required to melt it ; had we been obliged 

 to use snow, either hard or soft, the daily task would have 

 been much heavier ; but by good fortune we have a very solid 

 icy slope on the land not more than 200 yards from the ship, 

 and here we have made our quarry.' For two years we dug 

 in an area no greater than twenty yards across, and yet at the 

 end of that time, when we must have removed many tons of 

 ice, we scarcely seemed to have scratched the surface of the 

 slope : such are the puny efforts of man ! 



' A quarter of an hour of hard delving with pick and shovel 

 each morning is sufficient to supply our daily needs ; the 

 sledge, loaded with ice-blocks, is towed back to the ship, and 

 the blocks are then carried on board and placed in a convenient 

 storage close to the main hatchway. The pile thus made is 

 kept well in advance of our needs in preparation for spells of 

 bad weather when digging may be impossible. Long before 

 the departure of the ice-diggers the cook's mate has been astir 

 with the galley fire alight and the coppers and ice-melters filled 

 so that by 8.30 the men's breakfast is prepared. By this time 

 all hammocks except those of the night watchmen are lashed 

 up and stowed away, and the linoleum-covered mess-deck has 

 been washed and cleared up. Breakfast is a very simple meal, 

 and consists always of a large bowl of porridge with bread and 

 butter and marmalade or jam. For a long time a hash or stew 

 was prepared, but as appetites fell off with our comparatively 

 confined life this was rarely touched, and is now practically 

 discontinued ; on the two mornings of the week when seal's 

 liver replaces the more ordinary meat, however, there is no 

 such abstinence ; everyone partakes of this excellent dish and 

 wishes heartily that the seal was possessed of more than one 

 liver.' 



I may here mention that when we came to slaughter seals 

 for our second winter there was a strong temptation to kill 

 them for their livers only, and I think it is a creditable fact 



