I9I2] NEED OF BETTER SHELTER 129 
could raise a bit of a snow wall. These last three days 
we have been lying in our wet bags, watching the tent 
poles bend and quiver as each squall strikes tlie tent, and 
speculating as to what can have Iiappened to t he ship. 
We also feel having only two biscuits a day and an 
insufficient supply of seal meat. We are hungry both for 
news of the Southern Party and for more food. 
March 5 to 15. — The conditions arc gradually but 
surely becoming more unbearable, and we cannot hope for 
improvement until we are settled in some permanent home 
for the winter. The tents we are living in at present are 
more threadbare than ever, and are pierced with innumer- 
able holes both large and small, so that during tlie whole 
time we arc inside them we are living in a young gale. 
To-day, March 15, is the last that I expect the ship, 
and from now on I shall conclude something has happened 
and that she is not coming. 
For some days we have been preparing in every way 
possible for the winter, and our position may be summed 
up as follows : We landed, besides our sledging rations, 
six boxes of biscuits with 45 lbs. in each box. The sledg- 
ing biscuits were finished on March i, ai]d (jf the others we 
have to keep two boxes intact for our journey d(}wn the 
coast. 
We have also enough cocoa t(^ give us a mug of very 
thin cocoa five nights of the week ; enough tea for a mug 
of equally thin tea once a week ; and the remaining day wc 
must rcboil the tea leaves or drink hot water solus. Our 
only luxuries are a very small am(juiiL of cIu)Colate and 
sugar, sufficient to give us a stick of chocolate every 
VOL, II,- ^ 
