Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/88

greater tendency to flap at the lee end wall. And where the canvas was fixed in over the door it began to work on the heavy stones which held it down, jerking and shaking them so that it threatened to throw them down. Bowers was trying all he could to jam them tight with pyjama jackets and bamboos, and in this I was helping him when the canvas suddenly ripped, and in a moment I saw about six rents all along the lee wall top, and in another moment we were under the open sky with the greater part of the roof flapped to shreds. The noise was terrific, and rocks began to tumble in off the walls on to Bowers and Cherry, happily without hurting them, and in a smother of drift Bowers and I bolted into our bags, and in them the three of us lay listening to the flap of the ragged ends of canvas over our heads, which sounded like a volley of pistol shots going on for hour after hour. As we lay there I think we were all revolving plans for making a tent now to get back to Hut Point with, out of the floorcloth on which we lay—the only piece of canvas now left us, except for the pieces still firmly embedded in the hut walls. We were all warm enough, though wet, as we had carried a great deal of snow into the bags with us, and every time we looked out more drift which was accumulating over us would fall in. I hoped myself that this would not prove to be one of the five- or eight-day blizzards which we had experienced at Cape Crozier in days gone by.

Monday, July 24, 1911.—The storm continued unabated until midnight, and then dropped to force 9 with squalls interspersed by short lulls. At 6.30 a.m. the