142 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[June 
evening hoosh, though we had the greatest difficulty in 
making it burn. Just before hoosh was ready it went out, 
and all the lamps followed suit. 
Three matches struck in succession did the same before 
we realised there was no air. I groped for a spade, and 
crawling along the shaft drove it through the drift, when 
a match burned immediately, the primus stove gave us no 
trouble, and all went well ; but it was a lesson to us, and in 
future I kept a long bamboo stuck through the chimney, 
and the wind keeping it shaking maintained an air-hole. 
When I fetched the bamboo it was only about 10 yards 
from the entrance of the shaft, yet the drift was so 
smothering and the night so dark, it was with the greatest 
difficulty I could find it. 
Towards the end of the month the shaft was so 
frequently blocked with snow that we dug it out alto- 
gether, and then made a hatch with a sack and some 
bamboos, the coamings being of snow blocks, and the 
effect of this was at once to be seen in the improvement 
of the ventilation. 
In spite of frequent frostbites during our few trips 
outside, they have one good point, for they make us 
appreciate the shelter of the hut and allow us to forget 
the dirt and grease of everything. 
June I. — Still blowing hard, but clear. Open water 
in the bay ; but when the moon is in the east we can see the 
blink of ice in the Ross Sea, so I hope the bay will soon 
freeze over. We have been discussing our best route 
down, whether to go round the Drygalski on the sea ice or 
over the tongue. I do not myself think the ice can be 
