I9I2] FIRST IMPRESSIONS OF BLUBBER 127 
from now on till the time we were relieved or relieved 
ourselves. 
We decided to reduce the biscuit to half ration and cut 
out everything else for the time being except seal meat and 
a small portion of pcmmican for flavouring. This same 
day we were fortunate enough to kill a small crab-eater 
seal. I tasted a small piece of raw blubber and rather 
liked it, while Abbott and Browning declared that it had 
a very strong flavour of melon. 
It was some time, however, before the blubber v/as 
added to our diet as a regular ration. During this short 
period of calm several times one or other of the party 
thought they saw smoke off the end of the Drygalski, but 
there seems no doubt that what they saw was only what is 
known as frost smoke, the vapour from the leads of open 
water on pack ice, though the ship certainly was at one 
time within 25 miles of us. 
On the 27th further discomfort was added to our 
condition as the gale was accompanied by blinding drift, 
so that we had all the unpleasantness of a barrier blizzard 
with no adequate shelter ; for the tents were threadbare 
and torn in several places. The snow was soon so thick 
that the sledge was completely buried with drift and the 
tent three-quarters hidden. 
During most of this fortnight we were Hving on one 
meal a day, and on this day we were unable even to get 
this, so that by the 29th, when the wind eased for a day 
or two, we were in no wise in a condition to look forward 
with equanimity to the chance of a winter without sufficient 
food or decent shelter ; in fact so weak were we that a 
