146 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[July 
ice has held. Otherwise it will mean that we shall have 
to go over the plateau, climbing up by Mount Larsen, 
and coming down the Ferrar Glacier, and if so we cannot 
start until November, and the food will be a problem. 
We made a terrible discovery in the hoosh to-night : 
a penguin's flipper. Abbott and I prepared the hoosh. 
I can remember using a flipper to clean the pot with, and 
in the dark Abbott cannot have seen it when he filled 
the pot. However, I assured everyone it was a fairly 
clean flipper, and certainly the hoosh was a good one. 
July 5. — A heavy snowstorm from the S.E., the 
first one we have had from that quarter since the hut 
was ready. It blocked the entrance completely. Conse- 
quently the air got pretty bad. The primus went out 
and the lamps burnt dimly until we dug through the 
drift and let in fresh air. Priestley and I cleared the 
door, but it was so thick with snow it soon drifted up again. 
It felt wonderfully warm out and we got quite hot digging. 
During the night we kept night watch two hours each, 
the watchman's duty being to keep the entrance from 
being blocked, as it was useless trying to keep the chimney 
clear — in fact, snow came down so fast^ it put the 
blubber fire out, and the smoke rendered the hut almost 
untenable, so that we had to cook the evening hoosh 
with the primus and use most of our precious oil. 
July 7. — Blew hard all night, drifting up the outer 
door completely. We cleared the shaft, but as our 
chimney was buried in drift, we could get no draught 
for the blubber fire, so we had to build the chimney up 
with seal skin and snow blocks. All this time the drift 
