90 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [February 
ice round the shore and a surf made it difficult for the 
boats to get in ; the water shoaled some way out, which 
meant wading backwards and forwards with the stores, 
while several times the boats broached to as they touched 
and half swamped. We worked from 3 a.m. till midnight, 
and started again at 4 a.m. on Sunday. 
The way everyone behaved was splendid, Davies the 
carpenter in particular working at the hut for 48 hours 
on end. Communication with the ship was twice cut 
off by heavy pack setting into the bay. 
By 4 A.M. Monday everything was landed, the ship 
party re-embarked, and the ship proceeded north, while 
we of the shore party, who were all dead tired, turned 
in for a few hours' sleep. One of Borchgrevink's huts 
was standing, but was half full of snow ; the other one 
had no roof and had evidently been used as a nesting 
place by generations of penguins. After clearing out the 
snow of the former we had quite comfortable quarters 
while we built our own hut. With the exception of the 
2 1st, when we had a mild blizzard, we had fine weather 
for building the hut, for which we were very thankful, 
as that, and carrying up all the stores, proved a long job 
for a small party. We used to start work every morning 
at 6, and knock off between 8 and 9 every evening, by 
which time we were pretty tired. 
By an oversight only two hammers had been landed, 
so four unfortunates had to use Priestley's geological 
hammers. These are heavy, square-headed implements, 
designed to chip, and judging by our mangled fingers 
the man who made them knew his business. We had 
