RATIONS REDUCED 



most of the tit-bits of seal meat, but these were quickly 

 recovered, and he came rushing down to join us in 

 securing the tent. While Mawson in frantic haste 

 chopped out blocks of snow and dumped them on to the 

 skirt of the tent, Mackay, no less frantically, struggled 

 with our sleeping-bag, which had been turned inside- 

 out to air, and which by this time was covered with 

 drift snow. He quickly had it turned right side in 

 again, and dashed it inside the tent. At last every- 

 thing was secured, and we found ourselves safe and 

 sound inside the tent. The Primus was quickly got 

 going, and soon we had some hot cocoa and hot seal 

 pottage, together with some small pieces of charred but 

 delicious seal blubber. The blizzard continued until 

 past our bedtime. We turned in with a determination 

 of making further experiments on the cooking of seal 

 meat on the following morning. 



The following day, November 1, we breakfasted 

 off a mixture of our ordinary hoosh and seal meat. 

 After some discussion we decided that our only hope of 

 reaching the Magnetic Pole lay in our travelling on 

 half rations from our present camp to the point on 

 the coast at the Drygalski Glacier, where we might for 

 the first time hope to be able to turn inland with reason- 

 able prospect of reaching the Magnetic Pole. Mawson 

 was emphatic that we must conserve six weeks of full 

 rations for our inland journey to and from the Pole. 

 This necessitated our going on half rations from this 

 island to the far side of the Drygalski Glacier, a distance 

 of about one hundred statute miles. In order to sup- 

 plement the regular half rations we intended to take seal 

 meat. 



While I was busy in calculating the times and 

 distances for the remainder of our journey, and pro- 

 portioning the food rations to suit our new programme, 



107 



