THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



condition, steak and liver, and returned to camp for 

 lunch. 



After lunch we took some blubber and seal meat 

 on to the island, intending to try the experiment of 

 making a blubber fire in order to cook the meat. 

 We worked our way a short distance up a steep, rocky 

 guUey, and there built a fireplace out of magnificent 

 specimens of hornblende rock. It seemed a base use 

 for such magnificent mineralogical specimens, but 

 necessity knows no laws. We had brought with us our 

 Primus lamp in order to start the fire. We put blubber 

 on our iron shovel, warmed this underneath by means 

 of the heat of the Primus lamp so as to render down the 

 oil from it, and then lit the oil. The experiment was 

 not altogether successful. Mawson cooked for about 

 three hours, closely and anxiously watched by Mackay 

 and myself. Occasionally he allowed us to taste small 

 snacks of the partly cooked seal meat, which were pro- 

 nounced to be delicious. 



While the experiment was at its most critical 

 stage, at about 6 p.m., we observed sudden swirls 

 of snowdrift high up on the western mountains, 

 coming rapidly down to lower levels. For a few 

 minutes we did not think seriously of the phenome- 

 non, but as the drift came nearer we saw that some- 

 thing serious was in the air. Mackay and I rushed down 

 to our tent, the skirt of which was only temporarily 

 secured with light blocks of snow. We reached it just as 

 it was struck by the sudden blizzard which had descended 

 from the western mountains. There was no time to dig 

 further blocks of snow, all we could do was to seize the 

 heavy food-bags on our sledges, weighing sixty pounds 

 each, and rush them on to the skirt of the tent. The 

 blizzard struck our kitchen on the island simultaneously 

 with our tent, and temporarily Mawson lost his mits and 



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