unearth one or two somewhere. Hut-slippers were
made out of the rabbit skins and they were found to be a great boon, one
being able to sit down for a while without his feet "going."

June arrived and with it much rough, cold weather. A boat was expected
to come to our relief, at the very latest, by the 30th. We had a
very chilly period during the middle of the month, and it was only by
hand-feeding the "jacket" of the wireless motor that any work could be
done by the station, as the tank outside was almost frozen solid.

The tide-gauge clock broke down towards the end of the month, and
though I tried for days to get it going I was not successful. One of the
springs had rusted very badly as a result of the frequent "duckings" the
clock had experienced, and had become practically useless.

We had ascertained that the 'Rachel Cohen' was still in Hobart, so on
the 23rd I wirelessed asking when the boat was to sail. The reply came
that the 'Rachel Cohen' was leaving Hobart on Thursday, June 26.

Our supply of kerosene oil was exhausted by the end of the month,
despite the fact that the rule of "lights out at 10 P.M." had been
observed for some time. Thus we were obliged to use sea elephant oil in
slush lamps. At first we simply filled a tin with the oil and passed
a rag through a cork floating on the top, but a little ingenuity soon
resulted in the production of a lamp with three burners and a handle.
This was made by Sandell out of an old tea-pot and one, two or three
burners could be lit as occasion demanded. During meal times the whole
three burners were used, but, as the oil smoked and smelt somewhat, we
generally blew out two as soon as the meal was finished. This was the
"general" lamp, but each man had, as well, one of his own invention.
Mine was scornfully referred to as the "house-boat," since it consisted
of a jam tin, which held the oil, standing in a herring tin which caught
the overflow.

At the end of June, Blake and I surveyed all the penguin rookeries round
about "The Nuggets" and, allowing a bird to the square foot, found that
there must have been about half a million birds in the area. The sealers
kill birds from these rookeries to the number of about one hundred and
thirty thousand yearly, so that it would seem reasonable to suppose
that, despite this fact, there must be an annual increase of about one
hundred thousand birds.

The end of the month arrived and, on making inquiries, we found that
there