Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/146

ice round the shore and a surf made it difficult for the boats to get in; the water shoaled some way out, which meant wading backwards and forwards with the stores, while several times the boats broached to as they touched and half swamped. We worked from 3 a.m. till midnight, and started again at 4 a.m. on Sunday.

The way everyone behaved was splendid, Davies the carpenter in particular working at the hut for 48 hours on end. Communication with the ship was twice cut off by heavy pack setting into the bay.

By 4 a.m. Monday everything was landed, the ship party re-embarked, and the ship proceeded north, while we of the shore party, who were all dead tired, turned in for a few hours' sleep. One of Borchgrevink's huts was standing, but was half full of snow; the other one had no roof and had evidently been used as a nesting place by generations of penguins. After clearing out the snow of the former we had quite comfortable quarters while we built our own hut. With the exception of the 21st, when we had a mild blizzard, we had fine weather for building the hut, for which we were very thankful, as that, and carrying up all the stores, proved a long job for a small party. We used to start work every morning at 6, and knock off between 8 and 9 every evening, by which time we were pretty tired.

By an oversight only two hammers had been landed, so four unfortunates had to use Priestley's geological hammers. These are heavy, square-headed implements, designed to chip, and judging by our mangled fingers the man who made them knew his business. We had