SOUTH 
choice of places was not wide, and that afternoon we dug out 
a site for two tents in the debris of the rookery, levelling it 
off with snow and rocks. My tent. No. 1, was pitched close 
under the clifi, and there during my stay on Elephant Island 
I lived. Crean's tent was close by, and the other three tents, 
which had fairly clean snow under them, were some yards 
away. The fifth tent was a ramshackle afiair. The material 
of the torn eight-man tent had been drawn over a rough frame- 
work of oars, and shelter of a kind provided for the men who 
occupied it. 
The arrangement of our camp, the checking of our gear, 
the killing and skimaing of seals and sea-elephants occupied 
us dmang the day, and we took to our sleeping-bags early. 
I and my companions in No. 1 tent were not destined to spend 
a pleasant night. The heat of our bodies soon melted the snow 
and refuse beneath us, and the floor of the tent became an evil- 
smelling yellow mud. The snow drifting from the cliff above 
us weighted the sides of the tent, and during the night a particu- 
larly stormy gust brought our little liome down on top of us. 
We stayed imderneath the snow-laden cloth till the morning, 
for it seemed a hopeless business to set about re-pitching the 
tent amid the storm that was ragmg in the darkness of the 
night. 
The weather was still bad on the morning of April 19. 
Some of the men were showing signs of demoralization. They 
were disinclined to leave the tents when the hour came for 
turning out, and it was apparent they were thinldng more of 
the discomforts of the moment than of the good fortune that 
had brought us to sound ground and comparative safety. The 
condition of the gloves and headgear shown me by some dis- 
couraged men illustrated the proverbial carelessness of the 
sailor. The articles had frozen stifi during the night, and the 
owners considered, it appeared, that this state of affairs provided 
them with a grievance, or at any rate gave them the right to 
grumble. They said they wanted dry clothes and that their 
health would not admit of their doing any work. Only by 
rather drastic methods were they induced to turn to. Frozen 
gloves and helmets undoubtedly are very uncomfortable, and 
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