They represented fuel as well as food for men and dogs. Orders were
given for the after-hold to be cleared and the stores checked, so that
we might know exactly how we stood for a siege by an Antarctic winter.
The dogs went off the ship on the following day. Their kennels were
placed on the floe along the length of a wire rope to which the leashes
were fastened. The dogs seemed heartily glad to leave the ship, and
yelped loudly and joyously as they were moved to their new quarters. We
had begun the training of teams, and already there was keen rivalry
between the drivers. The flat floes and frozen leads in the
neighbourhood of the ship made excellent training grounds. Hockey and
football on the floe were our chief recreations, and all hands joined
in many a strenuous game. Worsley took a party to the floe on the 26th
and started building a line of igloos and "dogloos" round the ship.
These little buildings were constructed, Esquimaux fashion, of big
blocks of ice, with thin sheets for the roofs. Boards or frozen
sealskins were placed over all, snow was piled on top and pressed into
the joints, and then water was thrown over the structures to make
everything firm. The ice was packed down flat inside and covered with
snow for the dogs, which preferred, however, to sleep outside except
when the weather was extraordinarily severe.
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