THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



it had been worked up from the state of an empty shell to 

 attain the fully furnished appearance it assumed after 

 every one had settled down and arranged his belongings. 

 It was not a very spacious dwelling for the accommodation 

 of fifteen persons, but our narrow quarters were warmer 

 than if the hut had been larger. The coldest part of the 

 house when we first lived in it was undoubtedly the 

 floor, which was formed of inch tongue-and-groove board- 

 ing, but was not double-lined. There was a space of 

 about four feet under the hut at the north-west end, 

 the other end resting practically on the ground, and it 

 was obvious to us that as long as this space remained 

 we would suffer from the cold, so we decided to make an 

 airlock of the area under the hut. To this end we decided 

 to build a wall round the south-east and southerly sides, 

 which were to windward, with the bulk of the provision 

 cases. To make certain that no air would penetrate 

 from these sides we built the first two or three tiers 

 of cases a little distance out from the walls of the hut, 

 pouring in volcanic earth until no gaps could be seen, 

 and the earth was level with the cases; then the rest 

 of the stores were piled up to a height of six or seven feet. 

 This accounted for one side and one end. On either side 

 of the porch two other buildings were gradually erected. 

 One, built out of biscuit cases, the roof covered with felt 

 and canvas, was a store-room for Wild, who looked after 

 the issue of all food-stuffs. The building on the other 

 side of the porch was a much more ambitious affair, and 

 was built by Mawson, to serve as a chemical and physical 

 laboratory. It was destined, however, to be used solely 

 as a store-room, for the temperature within its walls was 

 practically the same as that of the outside air, and the 

 warm, moist atmosphere rushing out from the hut cov- 

 ered everything inside this store-room with fantastic ice 

 crystals. 



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