THE DEPOT JOURNEY 165 
or liver was levered and chopped with an ice axe from 
the general store of seal meat: fids of sealskin, with the 
blubber attached, a good three inches of it perhaps, were 
brought in and placed by the stove, much as we bring ina 
scuttle of coal. Gradually the community scattered as 
duty or inclination led, leaving some members to dig away 
the snow-drifts which had accumulated round the door and 
windows during the night. 
By lunch time every one had some new item of interest. 
Wright had found a new form of ice crystal: Scott had 
tested the ice off the Point and found it five inches thick: 
Wilson had found new seal holes off Cape Armitage, and 
we had hopes of finding our food and fuel nearer home: 
Atkinson had killed an Emperor penguin which weighed 
over ninety pounds, a record: and the assistant zoologist 
felt he would have to skin it, and did not want to do so: 
Meares had found an excellent place to roll stones down 
Arrival Heights into the sea: Debenham had a new theory 
to account for the Great Boulder, as a mammoth block dif- 
ferent in structure from the surrounding geological features 
was called: Bowers had a scheme for returning from the 
Pole by the Plateau instead of the Barrier: Oates might 
be heard saying that he thought he could do with another 
chupattie. A favourite pastime was the making of knots. 
Could you make a clove hitch with one hand? 
The afternoon was like the morning, save that the sun 
was now sinking behind the Western Mountains. These 
autumn effects were among the most beautiful sights of 
the world, and it was now that Wilson made the sketches 
for many of the water-colours which he afterwards painted 
at Winter Quarters. The majority were taken from the 
summit of Observation Hill, crouching under the lee of 
the rocks into which, nearly two years after, we built the 
Cross which now stands to commemorate his death and 
that of his companions. He sketched quickly with bare 
fingers and mittened hands, jotting down the outlines of 
hills and clouds, and pencilling in the colours by name. 
After a minute, more or less, the fingers become too cold 
for such work, and they must be put back into the wool and 
