SOUTH 
Thank heaven man is an adaptable brute ! If we dwell suffi- 
ciently long in this hut, we are likely to alter our method of 
walking, for our ceiling, which is but four feet six inches high at 
its highest part, compels us to walk bent double or on all fours. 
Our doorway — Cheetham is just crawling in now, bringing 
a shower of snow with him — ^was originally a tent entrance. 
AVhen one wishes to go out, one unties the cord securing the 
door, and crawls or wriggles out, at the same time exclaiming 
' Thank goodness I'm in the open air ! ' This should suffice 
to describe the atmosphere inside the hut, only pleasant when 
charged with the overpowering yet appetizing smell of burning 
penguin steaks. 
" From all parts there dangles an odd collection of blubbery 
garments, hung up to dry, through which one crawls, much as 
a chicken in an incubator. Our walls of tent-canvas admit as 
much light as might be expected from a closed Venetian blind. 
It is astonishing how we have grown accustomed to incon- 
veniences, and tolerate, at least, habits which a little time back 
were regarded with repugnance. We have no forks, but each 
man has a sheath-knife and a spoon, the latter in many cases 
having been fashioned from a piece of box lid. The knife serves 
many purposes. With it we kill, skin, and cut up seals and 
penguins, cut blubber into strips for the fire, very carefully 
scrape the snow off our hut walls, and then after a perfunctory 
rub with an oily penguin-skin, use it at meals. We are as 
regardless of our grime and dirt as is the Esquimaux. We have 
been unable to wash since we left the ship, nearly ten months 
ago. For one thing we have no soap or towels, only bare 
necessities being brought with us ; and, again, had we pos- 
sessed these articles, our supply of fuel would only permit us 
to melt enough ice for drinking purposes. Had one man 
washed, half a dozen others would have had to go without a 
drink all day. One cannot suck ice to relieve the thirst, as at 
these low temperatures it cracks the lips and blisters the tongue. 
Still, we are all very cheerful." 
During the whole of their stay on Elephant Island the 
weather was described by Wild as " simply appalling." 
Stranded as they were on a narrow, sandy beach surrounded 
230 
