THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



shore-party, with stores and equipment, and then to 

 return to New Zealand, where she would wait until 

 the time arrived to bring us back to civilisation. It 

 was therefore very necessary that we should have a 

 reliable hut in which to live during the Antarctic night 

 until the sledging journeys commenced. The hut would 

 be our only refuge from the fury of the blizzards and 

 the intense cold of the winter months. I thought 

 then that the hut would have to accommodate twelve 

 men, though the number was later increased to fifteen, 

 and I decided that the outside measurements should be 

 thirty-three feet by nineteen feet by eight feet to the 

 eaves. This was not large, especially in view of the 

 fact that we would have to store many articles of equip- 

 ment and some of the food in the hut, but a small 

 building meant economy in fuel. The hut was specially 

 constructed to my order by Messrs. Humphreys, 

 of Knightsbridge, and after being erected and inspected 

 in London was shipped in sections in the Nirnrod. 



It was made of stout fir timbering of best quality 

 in walls, roofs, and floors, and the parts were all morticed 

 and tenoned to facilitate erection in the Antarctic. 

 The walls were strengthened with iron cleats bolted 

 to main posts and horizontal timbering, and the roof 

 principals were provided with strong iron tie rods. 

 The hut was lined with match-boarding, and the walls 

 and roof were covered externally first with strong roof- 

 ing felt, then with one-inch tongued and grooved boards, 

 and finally with another covering of felt. In addition 

 to these precautions against the extreme cold the four- 

 inch space in framing between the match-boarding and the 

 first covering of felt was packed with granulated cork, 

 which assisted materially to render the wall non-con- 

 ducting. The hut was to be erected on wooden piles 



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