Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/85

upon which we had put heavy slabs of icy snow, was lifted clean off and was stretched upwards and outwards like a tight dome and as taut as a drum. There was no chafe or friction anywhere except along the lee end wall top, and there we plugged every space between the canvas and the wall stones with pyjama jackets, fur mits, socks, &c. So long as the ice slabs remained on the top, moreover, there was no flapping and everything seemed fairly secure. Our only fear was that to allow of the admission of so much drift and dust through the weather wall there must have been openings in our packing—and we thought it possible that by degrees the upward tension might draw the canvas roof out. We could not be quite certain that the ice-slabs were not being eaten away. This, however, proved not to be our danger; the slabs remained sound to the end and the canvas buried in the walls did not draw anywhere at all, even for an inch.

The storm continued unabated all day, and we decided to cook a meal on the blubber stove. We felt a great satisfaction in having three penguin skins to cook with for some days, so that we could last out any length of blizzard without coming to our last can of oil.

We got the blubber stove going once or twice, but it insisted on suddenly going out for no apparent reason. And before we had boiled any water, in trying to restart it with the spirit lamp provided for the purpose, the feed-pipe suddenly dropped off, unsoldered, rendering the whole stove useless. [That was the end of the stove; very lucky it ended when it did, for it was obviously a most dangerous thing.] We therefore poured the melted