COOKING WITH BLUBBER 



wicks at their base. The wicks, now fed with warm, 

 pure seal oil, started to burn brightly, and even fiercely, 

 so that it became necessary occasionally to damp them 

 down with chips of fresh blubber. We tried the ex- 

 periment of using lumps of salt as wicks, and found this 

 fairly successful. We also tried small pieces of our 

 brown rope for the same purpose, using the separated 

 strands of these cut in pieces of about one and a half 

 inches long. These made excellent wicks, but we 

 could not spare much rope. We also tried the lamp- 

 wick that we had brought with us for binding on our 

 finnesko, but in this case also rigid economy was an 

 absolute necessity. We decided to rely for wicks chiefly 

 on our empty food-bags, and thought possibly that if 

 these ran out we might have recourse to moss. But the 

 empty food-bags supplied sufficient wick for our need. 



That day, by means of galvanised iron wires, we 

 slung the inner pot from our aluminium cooker over 

 the lighted wicks of our blubber cooker, thawed 

 down snow in it, added chips of seal meat and made 

 a dehcious bouillon. This had a rich red colour and 

 seemed very nutritious, but to me was indigestible. 

 W^hile Mawson was still engaged on further cooking 

 experiments, Mackay and I ascended to the highest 

 point of the island, selected a spot for a cairn to mark 

 our depot, and Mackay commenced building the cairn. 

 Meanwhile, I returned to camp and wrote a number of 

 letters, including one to the commander of the Nimrod. 

 The latter was accompanied by a sketch plan taken 

 from the Admiralty chart to show the proper position 

 of our final depot before we were to turn inland " on 

 the low sloping shore " to the north-west of the Drygalski 

 Glacier. The other letters were to Lieutenant Shackleton 

 and to my family. 



109 



