THE HUT 



let into the ground or ice, and rings were fixed to the 

 apex of the roof so that guy ropes might be used to 

 give additional resistance to the gales. The hut had 

 two doors, connected by a small porch, so that ingress 

 and egress would not mean the admission of a draught 

 of cold air, and the windows were double, in order that 

 the warmth of the hut might be retained. There were 

 two louvre ventilators in the roof, controlled from the 

 inside. The hut had no fittings, and we took little 

 furniture, only some chairs. I proposed to use cases 

 for the construction of benches, beds and other necessary 

 articles of internal equipment. The hut was to be lit with 

 acetylene gas, and we took a generator, the necessary 

 piping, and a supply of carbide. 



The cooking-range we used in the hut was manu- 

 factured by Messrs. Smith and Wellstead, of London, 

 and was four feet wide by two feet four inches 

 deep. It had a fire chamber designed to bum 

 anthracite coal continuously day and night and to 

 heat a large superficial area of outer plate, so that 

 there might be plenty of warmth given off in the hut. 

 The stove had two ovens and a chimney of galvanised 

 steel pipe, capped by a revolving cowl. It was mounted 

 on legs. This stove was erected in the hut at the 

 winter quarters, and with it we heated the building and 

 did all our cooking while we were there. We took also 

 a portable stove on legs, with a hot-water generator at 

 the back of the fire, connected with a fifteen-gallon tank, 

 but this stove was not erected, as we did not find that a 

 second stove was required. 



For use on the sledging expeditions I took six 

 " Nansen " cookers made of aluminium, and of the 

 pattern that has been adopted, with slight modifica- 

 tions, ever since Nansen made his famous journey in 

 1893-96. The sledging- tents, of which I bought six, 



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