WINTER QUARTERS AT CAPE ROYDS OUTSIDE
The next few days were spent in using pick, shovel and iron crowbars
on the envelope of ice that covered our cases, corners of which only
peeped from the mass.
The whole looked like a huge piece of the sweet known as almond rock,
and it was as difficult to get our cases clear of the ice as it is to
separate almonds from that sticky conglomerate without injury. In this
strenuous labour, however, there was some humour, for Brocklehurst,
who took great interest in the recovery of the chocolate, spent his
energies in rescuing one particular case which had been covered with
ice.
Having rescued it he carried it up to the hut to be sure of its safety,
and was greeted with joy by the Professor, who recognised in the load
some of his scientific instruments which were playing the part of the
cuckoo in an old chocolate box. Needless to say Brocklehurst's joy was
not as heartfelt as the Professor's.
We were now using the ponies, and within ten days after the departure
of the ship we had practically everything handy to the hut, excepting
the coal. Permanently we had not lost very much, but we do know that
our one case of beer lies to this day under the ice, and some volumes
of the Challenger reports, which had been intended to provide us with
useful reading matter during the winter nights, were only dug out a few
days before our final departure.
Most of us at one time or another had wounds and bruises to be attended
to by Marshall, and the annoying feature of these simple wounds was the
length of time it took in our special circumstances for them to heal.
The day after the ship left we laid in a supply of fresh meat for
the winter, killing about a hundred penguins and burying them in
a snow-drift close to the hut. By February 28 we were practically
in a position to feel contented with ourselves, and to explore the
neighbourhood of our winter quarters (See sketch, page 61).
From the door of our hut which faced north-west, we had a splendid view
of the Sound and the western mountains. Right in front of us lay a
small lake which came to be known as Pony Lake, and to the left of that
was another sheet of ice that became snow-covered in autumn, and here
in the dark months we exercised both the ponies and ourselves.
Six times up and down the "Green Park," as we called it, made a mile,
and it was here before darkness fell upon us that we played hockey and
football.
To the left of Green Park was a gentle slope leading down between two
cliffs to the sea, and ending in a little bay known as Dead Horse Bay,
and on either side of this valley lay the penguin rookery.
On coming out of the hut we had only to go round the corner of the
building to catch a glimpse of Mount Erebus, which lay directly behind
us. Its summit was about fifteen miles from our quarters, but its
slopes and foothills began within three-quarters of a mile of the hut.
Our view was cut off from the east to south-west by the ridge at the
head of the valley where the hut stood, but on ascending this ridge we
looked over the bay to the south-east, where lay Cape Barne. To the
right was Flagstaff Point.
There were many localities which became favourite places for walks,
and these are shown on the plan (page 61). Sandy Beach was generally
the goal of any one taking exercise, when uncertain weather warned us
against venturing further, and while the dwindling light allowed us
to go so far. Here we sometimes exercised the ponies, and they much
enjoyed rolling in the soft sand.
As regards the interest and scenery of our winter quarters we were
infinitely better off than the expedition which wintered in McMurdo
Sound between 1901 and 1904, and as a field of work for geologists
and biologists Cape Royds far surpassed Hut Point. The Professor and
Priestley saw open before them a new chapter of geological history, for
Murray the lakes were a fruitful field for new research. Adams, the
meteorologist, could not complain, for Mount Erebus was in full view of
the meteorological station, and this fortunate proximity to Erebus and
its smoke-cloud led, in a large measure, to important results in this
branch. Mawson made the study of ice part of his work, and from every
point of view I must say we were extremely fortunate in the winter
quarters to which the state of the ice had led us.
Before we had been ten days ashore the hut was practically completed,
though it was over a month before it attained the very fully furnished
appearance which it assumed after every one had arranged his
belongings. It was not a spacious dwelling for fifteen persons, but if
the hut had been larger we should not have been so warm.
[Illustration: Winter Quarters. (_See page 59_)]
At first the coldest part of the house was undoubtedly the floor,
which was formed of inch tongue-and-groove: boarding, but was not
double-lined. There was a space of about four feet under the hut at
one end, and as the other rested almost on the ground it was obvious
to us that as long as this space remained we should suffer from the
cold. So we decided to make an airlock of the area under the hut, and
to this end we built a wall with the bulk of provision cases round the
south-east and southerly sides, which were to windward.
On either side of the porch two other buildings were gradually erected.
One, built out of biscuit cases, the roof covered with felt and
canvas, was a store-room for Wild, who looked after the issue of all
food-stuffs. The building on the other side was far more elaborate, and
was built by Mawson to serve as a chemical and physical laboratory.
It was destined, however, to serve solely as a store-room, for the
temperature inside was so nearly the same as that outside, that the
moist atmosphere rushing from the hut covered everything inside this
store-room with fantastic ice crystals.
The lee side of the hut ultimately became the wall of the stables,
for we decided to keep the ponies sheltered for the winter. However
the first night they were stabled none of us had much rest, and some
of them broke loose and returned to their valley. Shortly afterwards
Grisi, one of the most high-spirited of the lot, pushed his head
through a window, so the lower halves of the hut windows had to be
boarded up.
In a store-room built on the south-east of the hut we kept the
tool-chest, the shoe-maker's outfit which was in constant requisition,
and any general stores that had to be issued at stated times. But the
first blizzard found out this place, and after the roof had been blown
off the wall fell down. When the weather was fine again we organised
a party to search for such things as mufflers, woollen helmets and
so on, and I found a Russian felt boot, weighing five pounds, lying
three-quarters of a mile from the crate in which it had been stowed.
For the whole of this distance it must have had a clear run in the air,
for there was not a scratch on the leather.
The dog kennels were placed close to the porch of the hut, and the
meteorological station was on the weather side on the top of a
small ridge. Adams was responsible for this, and as readings of the
instruments were to be taken day and night at intervals of two hours,
and as in thick weather the man trying to go between hut and screen
might possibly lose his way, a line was rigged up on posts which were
cemented into the ground by ice.