Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/240

worse, so evidently a seal meat and blubber diet is healthy enough. Strangely enough we do not get tired of it.

From the top of the hill I could see sea ice on the horizon, but the bay remains open.

September 5.—A very heavy gale has been blowing since the first, keeping all hands inside the hut. We have had an epidemic of enteritis which is hard to account for, as we are eating seal meat that has never seen the sun, but I think the 'oven' or tin we thaw the meat out in may have had something to do with it, so we have condemned it.

It is a great pity getting this a few weeks before starting sledging, as it is making us all so weak.

September 6.—A great improvement in the public health due to Levick's wisely curtailing the hoosh. I have been the least affected, but Browning and Dickason are still very bad. I hope this may be the end of it, as we are still all weak, and for the first time in the winter there has been a general gloom. The weather has been vile, but improved to-day.

September 11.—The best day we have had yet, bright and clear with a light westerly wind. Priestley and I went over to the depôt moraine to look at the geological specimens and put them round the bamboo mark, but found they had been buried in a drift, and after digging all day had to come away without them. On our way back we dug out the sledges, which had been nearly buried. When we got back we found Abbott and Dickason had been all round the coves after seals, but without success.

We are still short of sledging meat, having only five bags