THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



able, being after the fashion of trestles, and the whole 

 affair, when meals were over, was slung by a rope at each 

 end about eight feet from the floor. At first we used to 

 put the boxes containing knives, forks, plates and bowls 

 on top of the table before hauling it up, but after these 

 had fallen on the unfortunate head of the person trying 

 to get them down, we were content to keep them on the 

 floor. 



I had been very anxious as regards the stove, the most 

 important part of the hut equipment, when I heard that, 

 after the blizzard that kept me on board the Nimrod, the 

 temperature of the hut was below zero, and that socks 

 put to dry in the baking-ovens came out as damp as 

 ever the following morning. My anxiety was dispelled 

 after the stove had been taken to pieces again, for it 

 was found that eight important pieces of its structure 

 had not been put in. As soon as this omission was 

 rectified the stove acted splendidly, and the makers 

 deserve our thanks for the particular apparatus they 

 picked out as suitable for us. The stove was put to a 

 severe test, for it was kept going day and night for over 

 nine months without once being out for more than ten 

 minutes, when occasion required it to be cleaned. It 

 supplied us with sufficient heat to keep the temperature 

 of the hut sixty to seventy degrees above the outside 

 air. Enough bread could be baked to satisfy our whole 

 hungry party of fifteen every day; three hot meals 

 a day were also cooked, and water melted from ice at 

 a temperature of perhaps twenty degrees below zero 

 in sufficient quantity to afford as much as we required 

 for ourselves, and to water the ponies twice a day, 

 and all this work was done on a consumption not 

 exceeding five hundredweight of coal per week. After 

 testing the stove by running it on an accurately measured 

 amount of coal for a month, we were reassured about our 



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