Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/292

polar cooking sooner than any of us. So he became cook's-mate and assistant—to rise to chef next week. Wright agreed to take the third week, and I thought by that time I might have learnt enough to improve on my own very modest culinary attainments.

We started on a Friday, and our calendar was reckoned from cook's day to cook's day. There was never any doubt as to which day of the week it was, because each cook was so keen to relinquish his post at the close of his term of office!

While Evans was initiating Debenham in the mysteries of pemmican, Wright and I walked across the sea ice a mile or so to the south and reached a 'lateral tongue' or prolongation of the main glacier. There was a sudden rise of some three feet, and the surface in place of being level and comparatively smooth was carved out into deep irregular bowls with overhanging margins. These were in all probability giant 'sunholes,' and their floors were covered with a most beautiful carpet of snow crystals.

Examined closely each crystal was like the segment of a fan strengthened by cross-ribs, and these 'fan-plates' were often half an inch across. The surface as a whole reminded me strongly of the appearance of a coral reef—and it was about as pleasant a sight to us as the latter is to the navigator. Wright was the only one who appreciated their beauty, we others being more concerned with the numerous capsizes caused by this 'coral reef' structure, which characterised the whole of the lower Ferrar Glacier.

We returned to the tent, and as usual at starting found it impossible to eat all our pemmican. It seemed much