Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/230

evening hoosh, though we had the greatest difficulty in making it burn. Just before hoosh was ready it went out, and all the lamps followed suit.

Three matches struck in succession did the same before we realised there was no air. I groped for a spade, and crawling along the shaft drove it through the drift, when a match burned immediately, the primus stove gave us no trouble, and all went well; but it was a lesson to us, and in future I kept a long bamboo stuck through the chimney, and the wind keeping it shaking maintained an air-hole. When I fetched the bamboo it was only about 10 yards from the entrance of the shaft, yet the drift was so smothering and the night so dark, it was with the greatest difficulty I could find it.

Towards the end of the month the shaft was so frequently blocked with snow that we dug it out altogether, and then made a hatch with a sack and some bamboos, the coamings being of snow blocks, and the effect of this was at once to be seen in the improvement of the ventilation.

In spite of frequent frostbites during our few trips outside, they have one good point, for they make us appreciate the shelter of the hut and allow us to forget the dirt and grease of everything.

June 1.—Still blowing hard, but clear. Open water in the bay; but when the moon is in the east we can see the blink of ice in the Ross Sea, so I hope the bay will soon freeze over. We have been discussing our best route down, whether to go round the Drygalski on the sea ice or over the tongue. I do not myself think the ice can be