THE HUT NEARLY BLOWN AWAY 



coal-supply being sufficient to carry us through the winter 

 right on to sledging time. 



As the winter came on and the light grew faint 

 outside, the hut became more and more like a workshop, 

 and it seems strange to me now, looking back to those 

 distant days, to remember the amount of trouble and 

 care that was taken to furnish and beautify what was 

 only to be a temporary home. One of our many kind 

 friends had sent us a number of pictures, which were 

 divided between the various cubicles, and these bright- 

 ened up the place wonderfully. During our first severe 

 blizzard, the hut shook and trembled so that every 

 moment we expected the whole thing to carry away, and 

 there is not the slightest shadow of a doubt that if Ave had 

 been located in the open, the hut and everything in it 

 would have been torn up and blown away. Even with 

 our sheltered position I had to lash the chronometers 

 to the shelf in my room, for they were apt to be shaken 

 off when the walls trembled in the gale. When the storm 

 was over we put a stout wire cable over the hut, burying 

 the ends in the ground and freezing them in, so as to 

 afford additional security in case heavier weather was in 

 store for us in the future. 



