50 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [July 
greater tendency to flap at the lee end wall. And where 
the canvas was fixed in over the door it began to work 
on the heavy stones which held it down, jerking and 
shaking them so that it threatened to throw them down. 
Bowers was trying all he could to jam them tight with 
pyjama jackets and bamboos, and in this I was helping 
him when the canvas suddenly ripped, and in a moment 
I saw about six rents all along the lee wall top, and in 
another moment we were under the open sky with the 
greater part of the roof flapped to shreds. The noise 
was terrific, and rocks began to tumble in off the walls 
on to Bowers and Cherry, happily without hurting them, 
and in a smother of drift Bowers and I bolted into our 
bags, and in them the three of us lay listening to the 
flap of the ragged ends of canvas over our heads, which 
sounded like a volley of pistol shots going on for hour 
after hour. As we lay there I think we were all revolving 
plans for making a tent now to get back to Hut Point 
with, out of the floorcloth on which we lay — the only 
piece of canvas now left us, except for the pieces still 
firmly embedded in the hut walls. We were all warm 
enough, though wet, as we had carried a great deal of 
snow into the bags with us, and every time we looked out 
more drift which was accumulating over us would fall in. 
I hoped myself that this would not prove to be one of 
the five- or eight-day blizzards which we had experienced 
at Cape Crozier in days gone by. 
Monday^ July 24, 191 1. — The storm continued un- 
abated until midnight, and then dropped to force 9 with 
squalls interspersed by short lulls. At 6.30 a.m. the 
