SOUTH 
boat liad been reduced to reasonable proportions, our pump 
could be used. This pump, wliich Hurley had made from the 
Flinders bar case of our ship's standard compass, was quite 
effective, though its capacity was not large. The man who 
was attending the sail could pump into the big outer cooker, 
which was lifted and emptied overboard when filled. We had 
a device by which the water could go direct from the pump into 
the sea through a hole in the gunwale, but this hole had to be 
blocked at an early stage of the voyage, since we found that it 
admitted water when the boat rolled. 
While a new watch was shivering in the wind and spray, 
the men who had been relieved groped hurriedly among the 
soaked sleepiug-bags and tried to steal a little of the warmth 
created by the last occupants ; but it was not always possible 
for us to find even this comfort when we went off watch. The 
boulders that we had taken aboard for ballast had to be shifted 
continually in order to trim the boat and give access to the 
pump, which became choked with hairs from the moulting 
sleeping-bags and finneskoe. The four reindeer-skin sleeping- 
bags shed their hair freely owing to the continuous wetting, and 
soon became quite bald in appearance. The moving of the 
boulders was weary and painful work. We came to know every 
one of the stones by sight and touch, and I have vivid memories 
of their angular peculiarities even to-day. They might have 
been of considerable interest as geological specimens to a 
scientific man under happier conditions. As ballast they were 
useful. As weights to be moved about in cramped quarters 
they were simply appalling. They spared no portion of our 
poor bodies. Another of our troubles, worth mention here, 
was the chafing of our legs by our wet clothes, which had not 
been changed now for seven months. The insides of our thighs 
were rubbed raw, and the one tube of Hazeline cream in our 
medicine-chest did not go far in alleviating our pain, which was 
increased by the bite of the salt water. We thought at the 
time that we never slept. The fact was that we would dose 
off uncomfortably, to be aroused quickly by some new ache 
or another caR to effort. My own share of the general un- 
pleasantness was accentuated by a finely developed bout of 
168 
