CHAPTER VII 
PATIENCE CAMP 
The apathy which seemed to take possession of some of the 
men at the frustration of their hopes was soon dispelled. 
Parties were sent out daily in difierent directions to look for 
seals and penguins. We had left, other than reserve sledging 
rations, about 110 lb. of pemmican, including the dog-pemmican, 
and 300 lb. of flour. In addition there was a little tea, sugar, 
dried vegetables, and suet. I sent Hurley and Macklin to 
Ocean Camp to bring back the food that we had had to leave 
there. They returned with quite a good load, including 130 lb. 
of dry milk, about 50 lb. each of dog-pemmican and jam, and 
a few tins of potted meats. When they were about a mile and 
a half away their voices were quite audible to us at Ocean Camp, 
so still was the air. 
We were, of course, very short of the farinaceous element 
in our diet. The flour would last ten weeks. After that our 
sledging rations would last us less than three'?months. Our 
meals had to consist mainly of seal and penguin ; and though 
this was valuable as an anti-scorbutic, so much so that not a 
single case of scurvy occurred amongst the party, yet it was 
a badly adjusted diet, and we felt rather weak and enervated 
in consequence. 
" The cook deserves much praise for the way he has stuck 
to his job through all this severe blizzard. His galley consists 
of nothing but a few boxes arranged as a table, with a canvas 
screen erected around them on four oars and the two blubber- 
stoves within. The protection afforded by the screen is only 
partial, and the eddies drive the pungent blubber-smoke in all 
directions." After a few days we were able to build him an 
igloo of ice-blocks with a tarpaulin over the top as a roof. 
Our rations are just sufficient to keep us alive, but we all 
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