pure fat, and it cooked up into a thick tasty
soup. It was specially made for us by Messrs. Beauvais of Copenhagen.

No casualties occurred during the winter, but Dr. Atkinson sustained a
severely frost-bitten hand on July 4 when we had one of our winter
blizzards. Certain thermometers had been placed in positions on the sea
ice and up on the Ramp by Simpson, and these we were in the habit of
visiting during the course of our exercise; the thermometer reading was
done by volunteers who signified their intention to Simpson in order to
avoid duplication of observation. On blizzard days we left them alone,
but Atkinson, seeing that the wind had modified in the afternoon,
zealously started out over the ice and was absent from dinner. Search
parties were sent in various directions, each taking a sledge with
sleeping-bags, brandy flask, thermos full of cocoa, and first-aid
equipment. Flares were lit and kept going on Wind Vale Hill, Simpson's
meteorological station overlooking the hut. Search was made in all
directions by us, and difficulty was experienced due to light snowfall.
Atkinson fetched up at Tent Island, apparently, which he walked round for
hours, and, in trying to make the Cape again, became hopelessly lost,
and, losing one of his mitts for a time, fell into a tide crack and did
not get home till close upon midnight. Search parties came in one by one
and were glad to hear the good news of Atkinson's return. My own party,
working to the south of Cape Evans, did not notice how time was passing,
and we--Nelson, Forde, Hooper, and myself--fetched up at 2 a.m. to be met
by Captain Scott and comforted with cocoa.

Atkinson's hand was dreadful to behold; he had blisters like great
puffed-out slugs on the last three fingers of his right hand, while on
the forefinger were three more bulbous-looking blisters, one of them an
inch in diameter. For days and days the hand had constantly to be
bandaged, P. O. Evans doing nurse and doing it exceedingly well.
Considering all things, we were fairly free of frostbite in the Scott
expedition, and there is no doubt that Atkinson's accident served as an
example to all of us to "ca' canny."

Although we had our proportion of blizzard days I do not think our
meteorological record showed any undue frequency of high wind and
blizzards; but, as Simpson in his meteorological discussion points out,
we suffered far more in this respect than Amundsen, who camped on the Ice
Barrier far from t