t he had reached the South Pole.

Blake had just recovered from his blistered heel when he had the
misfortune to meet with a slight accident. He and Hamilton were engaged
cutting a track through the tussock from the Shack to the beach, when
the spade wielded by Hamilton struck Blake's foot, cutting through
the boot and inflicting a wound on the great toe. It was treated
antiseptically and bound up; Blake being laid up for a few days.

Cooking was still on the up grade. Everybody, as his turn arrived,
embarked on something new. Blake turned out a magnificent meat pudding
during his week, and Sawyer manufactured a salmon kedgeree. Sandell's
treacle pudding and Hamilton's soda rolls and date pudding were all
equally good, while I fairly surpassed myself with a roly-poly and some
pancakes.

Hitherto, Sawyer and Sandell had been coming down to the Shack each
night after finishing the wireless work, but on account of the bad
weather they determined to sleep up there and, with that end in view,
each built a bunk for himself; Sawyer, in the operating-hut, had
ample room for the improvement, but Sandell had more difficulty in
the engine-hut, finding it necessary to add a small structure to the
original one.

Good wireless work was now being done, and almost every ship trading
to eastern Australian ports gave us a "call up." Much difficulty was
experienced with the mast's stays, which frequently required tightening
on account of the "deadmen" working loose in the yielding peaty soil.
There were seven stays required for each mast, and Sandell spent much
time in attending to them.

Hamilton had found, some weeks previously, several nests of the sooty
albatross along the cliff-front on the eastern side of Wireless Hill,
and on the 21st he visited them for the purpose of photographing the
young in the nest. They were still in the downy stage, and vomited
vigorously on being approached.

These birds build their nests on ledges along the face of a steep cliff
and always betray the whereabouts of their nesting-place by wheeling
and soaring around the vicinity. When sitting, the bird utters piercing
calls for its mate and is thereby easily located. They make a nest of
grass, generally at the root of a tussock growing on the cliff-front,
and when the building is in progress the two birds sit side by side
entwining their necks, rubbing beaks and at intervals uttering their
harsh cries. One can approach and catch them quite easily, e