48 SPORT, TRAVEL, AND ADVENTURE 



had nothing to eat for twelve hours, and were becoming 

 very hungry. As there was a large lump of raw seal- 

 meat handy, we gnawed at this, but it was so cold 

 that it froze to our lips, and so hard that after we had 

 eaten off the angles we could no longer make any 

 impression upon it. We had all put on our windproof 

 clothing in case of accident. 



About midday, as the wind showed no signs of 

 moderating, I thought that something really must be 

 done, so Abbott and I managed to find where the door 

 was, and crawled through it, leaving Browning inside to 

 sit on the bags. On getting outside, we found the force 

 of the wind so great that it was impossible to stand 

 up for a moment. I wanted to find some place 

 sheltered enough to allow of our putting up the spare 

 tent, so we crawled some distance, on all fours, to the 

 lee of one of the moraine heaps. Here, however, things 

 were just as bad ; the wind swept over and round t 

 mound, and wherever we tried there was no sort 

 shelter. After this we crawled back and underneath 

 the tent again, having had just about enough of the 

 wind. We all three got into our bags again and lay 

 there until about 4 p.m. Fortunately, I had saved two 

 sticks of chocolate and a biscuit, which we divided 

 amongst us, and this was all we had to eat all day. 



The sun was now going down, and as the wind 

 showed no signs of abatement, it became evident that 

 we could not see the night through where we were, 

 and that we must make an effort to reach the other 

 party over at the igloo. We all three crawled out 

 and piled ice and moraine blocks all over the tent and 

 its contents, being most careful that there was no 

 chance of our precious sleeping-bags being lost. To 



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u-U 



