Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/229

From now till the end of the month strong gales again reduced our outside work to a minimum, and most of our energies were directed to improving our domestic routine.

We have now a much better method for cutting up the meat for the hoosh. Until now we had to take the frozen joints and hack them in pieces with an ice-axe. We have now fixed up an empty biscuit tin on a bamboo tripod over the blubber fire. The small pieces of meat we put in this to thaw; the larger joints hang from the bamboo. In this way they thaw sufficiently in the twenty-four hours to cut up with a knife, and we find this cleaner and more economical.

We celebrated two special occasions on this month, my wedding-day on the 10th, and the anniversary, to use a paradox, of the commissioning of the hut on the 17th, and each time the commissariat officer relaxed his hold to the extent of ten raisins each.

Levick is saving his biscuit to see how it feels to go without cereals for a week. He also wants to have one real good feed at the end of the week. His idea is that by eating more blubber he will not feel the want of the biscuits very much.

On May 25 we had an unpleasant experience that might have been serious. Drift had blocked the funnel and shaft so that the smoke from the blubber stove became unbearable and we made up our minds to put it out. As a matter of fact it went out, and we had the greatest difficulty in keeping the lamps alight. This ought to have warned us the air was bad.

In spite of this we lit the primus stove to cook the