acquired the art of tossing pancakes. Jeffryes
had come on the scene with a limited experience, but his first milk
scones gained him a reputation which he managed to make good. Hodgeman
fell back on the cookery book before embarking on the task of preparing
dinner, but the end-product, so to speak, which might be invariably
expected for "sweets" was tapioca pudding. Penguin meat had always
been in favour. Now special care was devoted to seal meat, and, after
a while, mainly owing to the rather copious use of onion powder, no one
could say for certain which was which.

During the previous year, yeast had been cultivated successfully
from Russian stout. The experiments were continued, and all available
information was gathered from cookery books and the Encyclopaedia.
Russian stout, barley wine, apple rings, sugar, flour and mould from
potatoes were used in several mixtures and eventually fermentation was
started. Bread-making was the next difficulty, and various instructions
were tried in succession. The method of "trial and error" was at
last responsible for the first light spongy loaf, and then every
night-watchman cultivated the art and baked for the ensuing day.

On April 8 the snow had gathered deeply everywhere and we had some
exercise on skis. Several of the morainic areas were no longer visible,
and it was possible to run between the rocks for a considerable
distance. A fresh breeze came up during the afternoon and provided a
splendid impetus for some good slides. During the short calm, twenty-six
seals landed on the harbour-ice.

On the morning of the same day Mary gave birth to five pups in the
Transit House. The place was full of cracks, through which snow and wind
were always driving, and so we were not surprised when four of them were
found to have died. The survivor was named "Hoyle" (a cognomen for our
old friend Hurley) and his doings gave us a new fund of entertainment.

The other dogs had been penned in the veranda and in tolerable weather
were brought outside to be fed. Carrying an axe, Madigan usually went
down to the boat harbour, followed by the expectant pack, to where there
were several seal carcases. These lay immovably frozen to the ice, and
were cut about and hacked so that the meat in section reminded one of
the grain of a log of red gum, and it was certainly quite as hard. When
Madigan commenced to chop, the dogs would range themselves on the lee
side and "field" the flying chips.

On A