LAND 93 
He was a leading shipwright in the navy, always willing 
and bright, and with a very thorough knowledge of his job. 
I have seen him called up hour after hour, day and night, 
on the ship, when the pumps were choked by the coal 
balls which formed in the bilges, and he always arrived 
with a smile on his face. Altogether he was one of our 
most useful men. In this job of hut-building he was helped 
by two of our seamen, Keohane and Abbott, and others. 
Latterly 1 believe there were more people working than 
there were hammers ! 
The hut was a roomy place, 50 feet long, by 25 feet 
wide, and 9g feet to the eaves. ‘The insulation, which was 
very satisfactory, was seaweed, sewn up in the form of 
a quilt. 
“The sides have double [match-] boarding inside and 
outside the frames, with a layer of our excellent quilted 
seaweed insulation between each pair of boardings. The 
roof has a single match-boarding inside, but on the outside 
is a match-boarding, then a layer of 2-ply ruberoid, then 
a layer of quilted seaweed, then a second match-boarding, 
and finally a cover of 3-ply ruberoid.”’ ? 
The floor consisted of a wooden boarding next the 
frame, then a quilt of seaweed, then a layer of felt upon 
which was a second boarding and finally linoleum. 
We thought we should be warm, and we were. In fact, 
during the winter, with twenty-five men living there, and 
the cooking range going, and perhaps also the stove at the 
other end, the hut not infrequently became fuggy, big 
though it was. 
The entrance was through a door in a porch before you 
got to the main door. In the porch were the generators of 
the acetylene gas, which was fitted throughout by Day, 
who was also responsible for the fittings of the ventilator, 
cooking range, and stove, the chimney pipes from these 
running along through the middle of the hut before enter- 
ing acommon vent. Little heat was lost. The pipes were 
fitted with dampers, and air inlets which could be opened 
or shut at will to control the ventilation. Besides a big 
1 Scott’s Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 111. 
P 
