SOUTH 
tive, so Wild hastened the excavation of the ice-cave in the 
slope which had been started before I left. 
The high temperature, hoAvever, caused a continuous stream 
of water to drip from the roof and sides of the ice-cave, and as 
with twenty-two men living in it the temperature would be 
practically always above freezings there would have been no 
hope of dry quarters for them there. Under the direction of 
Wild they, therefore, collected some big flat stones, having in 
many cases to dig down under the snow which was covering 
the beach, and with these they erected two substantial walls 
four feet high and nineteen feet apart. 
" We are all ridiculously weak, and this part of the work 
was exceedingly laborious and took us more than twice as long 
as it would have done had we been in normal health. Stones 
that we could easily have lifted at other times we found quite 
beyond our capacity, and it needed two or three of us to carry 
some that would otherwise have been one man's load. Our 
difficulties were added to by the fact that most of the more 
suitable stones lay at the farther end of the spit, some one 
hundred and fifty yards away. Our weakness is best compared 
with that which one experiences on getting up from a long 
illness ; one ' feels ' well, but physically enervated. 
" The site chosen for the hut was the spot where the stove 
had been originally erected on the night of our arrival. It lay 
between two large boulders, which, if they would not actually 
form the walls of the hut, would at least provide a valuable 
protection from the wind. Further protection was provided 
to the north by a hill called Penguin Hill, at the end of the spit. 
As soon as the walls were completed and squared o£E, the two 
boats were laid upside down on them side by side. The exact 
adjustment of the boats took some time, but was of paramount 
importance if our structure was to be the permanent affair 
that we hoped it would be. Once in place they were securely 
chocked up and lashed down to the rocks. The few pieces of 
wood that we had were laid across from keel to keel, and over 
this the material of one of the torn tents was spread and secured 
with guys to the rocks. The walls were ingeniously contrived 
and fixed up by Marston. First he cut the now useless tents 
224 
