284 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 
earth. In time we got both tea and pemmican, which was 
full of hairs from our bags, penguin feathers, dirt and 
debris, but delicious. The blubber left in the cooker got 
burnt and gave the tea a burnt taste. None of us ever for- 
got that meal: I enjoyed it as much as such a meal could 
be enjoyed, and that burnt taste will always bring back the 
memory. 
It was still dark and we lay down in gur bags again, but 
soon a little glow of light began to come up, and we turned 
out to have a further search for the tent. Birdie went off 
before Billand me. Clumsily I dragged my eider-down out 
of my bag on my feet, all sopping wet: it was impossible 
to get it back and I let it freeze: it was soon just like a 
rock. The sky to the south was as black and sinister as it 
could possibly be. It looked as though the blizzard would 
be on us again at any moment. 
I followed Bill down the slope. We could find nothing. 
But, as we searched, we heard a shout somewhere below 
and to the right. We got ona slope, slipped, and went slid- 
ing down quite unable to stop ourselves, and came upon 
Birdie with the tent, the outer lining still on the bamboos. 
Our lives had been taken away and given back to us. 
We were so thankful we said nothing. 
The tent must have been gripped up into the air, 
shutting as it rose. The bamboos, with the inner lining 
lashed to them, had entangled the outer cover, and the 
whole went up together like a shut umbrella. This was 
our salvation. If it had opened in the air nothing could 
have prevented its destruction. As it was, with all the 
accumulated ice upon it, it must have weighed the best 
part of 100 lbs. It had been dropped about half a mile 
away, at the bottom of a steep slope: and it fell in a 
hollow, still shut up. The main force of the wind had 
passed over it, and there it was, with the bamboos and 
fastenings wrenched and strained, and the ends of two of 
the poles broken, but the silk untorn. 
If that tent went again we were going with it. We 
made our way back up the slope with it, carrying it 
solemnly and reverently, precious as though it were some- 
