I9II] THE STOVE FAILS 47 
upon which we had put heavy slabs of icy snow, was lifted 
clean off and was stretched upwards and outwards like 
a tight dome and as taut as a drum. There was no chafe 
or friction anywhere except along the lee end wall top, 
and there we plugged every space between the canvas 
and the wall stones with pyjama jackets, fur mits, socks, 
&c. So long as the ice slabs remained on the top, more- 
over, there was no flapping and everything seemed fairly 
secure. Our only fear was that to allow of the admission 
of so much drift and dust through the weather wall there 
must have been openings in our packing — and we thought 
it possible that by degrees the upward tension might draw 
the canvas roof out. We could not be quite certain that 
the ice-slabs were not being eaten away. This, however, 
proved not to be our danger ; the slabs remained sound to 
the end and the canvas buried in the walls did not draw 
anywhere at all, even for an inch. 
The storm continued unabated all day, and we decided 
to cook a meal on the blubber stove. We felt a great 
satisfaction in having three penguin skins to cook with 
for some days, so that we could last out any length of 
blizzard without coming to our last can of oil. 
We got the blubber stove going once or twice, but it 
insisted on suddenly going out for no apparent reason. 
And before we had boiled any water, in trying to restart 
it with the spirit lamp provided for the purpose, the 
feed-pipe suddenly dropped off, unsoldered, rendering 
the whole stove useless. [That was the end of the stove ; 
very lucky it ended when it did, for it was obviously a 
most dangerous thing.] We therefore poured the melted 
