eteorological instruments and
changed the daily charts; at times having to feel his way from one place
to the other. Attending to the exposed instruments in a high wind with
low temperature was bad enough, but with suffocating drift difficulties
were increased tenfold.

Around the Hut there was a small fraternity who chose the outside
veranda as a rendezvous. Here the latest gossip was exchanged, and the
weather invariably discussed in forcible terms. There was Whetter, who
replenished the water-supply from the unfailing fountain-head of the
glacier. For cooking, washing clothes and for photographic and other
purposes, eighteen men consumed a good deal of water, and, to keep up
with the demand, Whetter piled up many hardly-won boxes of ice in
the veranda. Close unearthed coal briquettes from the heap outside,
shovelled tons of snow from the veranda and made himself useful and
amiable to every one. Murphy, our stand-by in small talk, travel,
history, literature and what not, was the versatile storeman. The store
in the veranda was continually invaded by similar snow to that which
covered the provision boxes outside. To keep the veranda cleared, renew
the supplies and satisfy the demands of the kitchen required no other
than Murphy. Ninnis and Mertz completed the "Veranda Club," to which
honorary members from within the Hut were constantly being added.

The meteorological instruments, carefully nursed and housed though they
were, were bound to suffer in such a climate. Correll, who was well
fitted out with a lathe and all the requirements for instrument-making,
attended to repairs, doing splendid service. The anemometer gave the
greatest trouble, and, before Correll had finished with it, most of the
working parts had been replaced in stronger metal.

When the recording sheets of the instruments had been successfully
changed, the meteorologist packed them in a leather bag, strapped on his
shoulders, so that they would not be lost on the way to the Hut. As soon
as he arrived indoors the bag was opened and emptied; the papers being
picked out from a small heap of snow.

It was a fortunate thing that no one was lost through failing to
discover the Hut during the denser drifts. Hodgeman on one occasion
caused every one a good deal of anxiety. Among other things, he
regularly assisted Madigan by relieving him of outdoor duties on the day
after his nightwatch, when the chief meteorologist was due for a "watch
below." It was