THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



its straps, and the blizzard wind immediately started 

 trundling this metal cylinder over the smooth ice. Day 

 stopped his car as soon as possible, Priestley and I 

 jumped off, and immediately gave chase to the runaway 

 cooker. Meanwhile, the cooker had fallen to pieces 

 so to speak; the tray part came away from the big 

 circular cover; the melter and the supports for the 

 cooking-pot and for the main outer covering also came 

 adrift as well as the cooking-pot itself. The lid of the 

 last-mentioned fell off, and immediately dumped on to 

 the ice the three pannikins and our three spoons. These 

 articles raced one another over the smooth ice-surface in 

 the direction of the open water of Ross Sea. The spoons 

 were easily captured, as also were the pannikins, which, 

 being conical in shape, could not be bowled by the wind 

 in a straight line, but described arcs of circles. Priestley 

 and I recovered also the cooking-pot, and with Brockle- 

 hurst's help (for he had run down to meet us) the 

 aluminium supports, but the large snow melter, the 

 main outer casing, and the tray kept revolving in front 

 of us at a speed which was just sufficient to outclass 

 our own most desperate efforts. Finally, when we 

 were nearly upon them, they took a joyous leap over 

 the low cliff of floe-ice and disappeared one after 

 another most exasperatingly in the black waters of 

 the Ross Sea. 



This was a shrewd loss, as aluminium cookers were, 

 of course, very scarce. Priestley and I returned dis- 

 consolate, and very much winded after our mile's run in 

 vain. 



The following day we had intended laying out our 

 second depot, but as some of the piston rings of the 

 motor-car needed repair, we decided to postpone the 

 departure until the day after. That afternoon, after 



T8 



