THE BOAT JOURNEY 
of sailing-boats and was very quick. McCarthy said that he 
could contrive some sort of covering for the James Caird if he 
might use the lids of the cases and the four sledge-runners that 
we had lashed inside the boat for use in the event of a landing 
on Graham Land at Wilhelmina Bay. This bay, at one time 
the goal of our desire, had been left behind in the course of 
our drift, but we had retained the runners. The carpenter 
proposed to complete the covering with some of our canvas, 
and he set about making his plans at once. 
Noon had passed and the gale was more severe than ever. 
We could not proceed with our preparations that day. The 
tents were suffering in the wind and the sea was rising. We 
made our way to the snow-slope at the shoreward end of the 
spit, with the uatention of digging a hole in the snow large enough 
to provide shelter for the party. I had an idea that Wild and 
his men might camp there diu-ing my absence, since it seemed 
impossible that the tents could hold together for many more 
days against the attacks of the wind ; but an examination of 
the spot indicated that any hole we could dig probably would 
be filled quickly by the drift. At dark, about 5 p.m., we all 
tmmed in, after a supper consisting of a pannikin of hot milk, 
one of om- precious biscuits, and a cold penguin leg each. 
The gale was stronger than ever on the following morning 
(April 20). No work could be done. Blizzard and snow, snow 
and blizzard, sudden lulls and fierce returns. During the lulls 
we could see on the far hori;^on to the north-east bergs of all 
shapes and sizes drivmg along before the gale, and the sinister 
appearance of the swift-moving masses made us thankful indeed 
that, instead of battling with the storm amid the ice, we were 
required only to face the drift from the glaciers and the inland 
heights. The gusts might throw us off our feet, but at least 
we fell on solid ground and not on the rocking floes. Two seals 
came up on the beach that day, one of them within ten yards 
of my tent. So urgent was our need of food and blubber that 
I called all hands and organized a line of beaters instead of 
simply walking up to the seal and hitting it on the nose. We 
were prepared to fall upon this seal en masse if it attempted 
to escape. The kill was made with a pick-handle, and in a 
159 
