wed out by Simpson and
Wright, was for the magnetic instruments. The temperature of these caves
was found to be fairly constant. Unfortunately, this was the only drift
into which we could tunnel, and we had no such mass of snow and ice as is
afforded by the Barrier, which can be burrowed, and was burrowed
extensively by Amundsen and his men.

The cases containing the bulk of our stores were placed in stacks
arranged by Bowers up on the sloping ground to the west of the hut,
beginning close to the entrance door. The sledges lay on the hill side
above them. This arrangement was very satisfactory during the first
winter, but the excessive blizzards of the second winter and the immense
amount of snow which was gathering about the camp caused us to move
everything up to the top of the ridge behind the hut where the wind kept
them more clear. Amundsen found it advisable to put his cases in two long
lines.[105]

The dogs were tethered to a long chain or rope. The ponies' stable was
built against the northern side of the hut, and was thus sheltered from
the blizzards which always blow here from the south. Against the south
side of the hut Bowers built himself a store-room. "Every day he
conceives or carries out some plan to benefit the camp."[106]

"Scott seems very cheery about things," I find in my diary about this
time. And well he might be. A man could hardly be better served. We
slaved until we were nearly dead-beat, and then we found something else
to do until we were quite dead-beat. Ship's company and landing parties
alike, not only now but all through this job, did their very utmost, and
their utmost was very good. The way men worked was fierce.

"If you can picture our house nestling below this small hill on a long
stretch of black sand, with many tons of provision cases ranged in neat
blocks in front of it and the sea lapping the ice-foot below, you will
have some idea of our immediate vicinity. As for our wider surroundings
it would be difficult to describe their beauty in sufficiently glowing
terms. Cape Evans is one of the many spurs of Erebus and the one that
stands closest under the mountain, so that always towering above us we
have the grand snowy peak with its smoking summit. North and south of us
are deep bays, beyond which great glaciers come rippling over the lower
slopes to thrust high blue-walled snouts into the sea. The sea is blue
before us, dotted with shining bergs or ice floes, whilst far over the