I9I2] CHOKED BY THE SNOW 141 
From now till the end of the month strong gales again 
reduced our outside work to a minimum, and most of our 
energies were directed to improving our domestic routine. 
We have now a much better method for cutting up the 
meat for the hoosh. Until now we had to take the frozen 
joints and hack them in pieces with an ice-axe. We have 
now fixed up an empty biscuit tin on a bamboo tripod 
over the blubber fire. The small pieces of meat we put in 
this to thaw ; the larger joints hang from the bamboo. In 
this way they thaw sufficiently in the twenty-four hours 
to cut up with a knife, and we find this cleaner and more 
economical. 
We celebrated two special occasions on this month, my 
wedding-day on the loth, and the anniversary, to use a 
paradox, of the commissioning of the hut on the 17th, 
and each time the commissariat officer relaxed his hold 
to the extent of ten raisins each. 
Levick is saving his biscuit to see how it feels to go 
without cereals for a week. He also wants to have one 
real good feed at the end of the week. His idea is that 
by eating more blubber he will not feel the want of the 
biscuits very much. 
On May 25 we had an unpleasant experience that 
might have been serious. Drift had blocked the funnel 
and shaft so that the smoke from the blubber stove 
became unbearable and we made up our minds to put it 
out. As a matter of fact it went out, and we had the 
greatest difficulty in keeping the lamps alight. This 
ought to have warned us the air was bad. 
In spite of this we lit the primus stove to cook the 
