Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/220

In fact we are saturated to the skin with blubber, and our clothes in consequence feel very cold.

When we kill a seal, we cut out the heart, liver, and kidneys; then cut the meat up into convenient joints and the blubber and skin into pieces about 2 feet square, which we can carry up on our backs and flense in the hut. We also preserve the head, as besides its meat it contains the greatest delicacy of all, the brain. The gale came on harder than ever in the afternoon.

Browning and I are suffering from dysentery.

March 29 to April 5—High wind and bitterly cold. We all get frostbitten constantly while working at the hut, and most of us are suffering from dysentery.

April 5.—A great improvement in the weather, and we got on well with the hut. We also carried up a lot of our things from the depôt. In the evening just as we were stopping work I saw three seals up on the ice, so we turned out again and killed and butchered them. This makes sixteen seals, and if we can march early should put us out of danger with regard to food. To celebrate the occasion Priestley allowed us an extra biscuit each.

April 7.—Northerly gales and drift since the 5th. The way from the hut to the ice foot is strewn with huge boulders, and it is a difficult job walking over these in a gale of wind without a load, while when one is staggering up under a load of meat or blubber, it is particularly maddening. When a squall catches you, over you go between two boulders, with your legs in the air and the load of blubber holding you down firmly. Our boots