160 British Antarctic Expedition. 
had been in use two or three times on a sledge 
journey. We got hot in them the first night, and 
the steam from our bodies made them damp; we 
packed them on the sledges in the morning, flat, with 
the provisions on the top of them. Then they froze 
hard, and when suddenly a gale surprised us, we had 
to thaw ourselves gradually into the bag, feet first, 
and their temperature did not always much differ 
from that of the frozen bag. Later we used to 
get the dogs to thaw them for us—they always 
liked to roll upon anything that was not snow or 
ice, even if it were but a thrown-away match—and 
when we had laid our frozen reindeer bags on the 
snow they generally clustered together on them 
at once, and half-an-hour later we could get into 
them. 
The silk tent was rapidly filled with dense fog 
as we three camped in it, both on account of our 
breath, and because of the heat given off by the 
lantern. A thick layer of frost covered the inner 
walls of the tent in a short time, and beautiful snow- 
crystals shone down on us through the ventilation hole 
in the bag. The snow-drift soon buried the tent, and 
the snow pressure just left us space enough for our 
sleeping-bags. 
That dark little spot which we formed on those 
vast white fields was blotted out. Men, dogs, 
sledges, all, disappeared, and the Antarctic gale found 
nothing new as it raged over us, only cold, white 
solitude. 
For three nights and for three days we had to 
take turn in standing on all fours to prevent being 
smothered by the pressure of the snow. 
