To this end, we stacked our surplus provisions, the reserve
sledging rations being kept lashed on the sledges, and brought what
gear we could from our but lately deserted Ocean Camp.
Our new home, which we were to occupy for nearly three and a half
months, we called "Patience Camp."
CHAPTER VII
PATIENCE CAMP
The apathy which seemed to take possession of some of the men at the
frustration of their hopes was soon dispelled. Parties were sent out
daily in different directions to look for seals and penguins. We had
left, other than reserve sledging rations, about 110 lbs. of pemmican,
including the dog-pemmican, and 300 lbs. of flour. In addition there
was a little tea, sugar, dried vegetables, and suet. I sent Hurley and
Macklin to Ocean Camp to bring back the food that we had had to leave
there. They returned with quite a good load, including 130 lbs. of dry
milk, about 50 lbs. each of dog-pemmican and jam, and a few tins of
potted meats. When they were about a mile and a half away their voices
were quite audible to us at Ocean Camp, so still was the air.
We were, of course, very short of the farinaceous element in our diet.
The flour would last ten weeks. After that our sledging rations would
last us less than three months. Our meals had to consist mainly of
seal and penguin; and though this was valuable as an anti-scorbutic, so
much so that not a single case of scurvy occurred amongst the party,
yet it was a badly adjusted diet, and we felt rather weak and enervated
in consequence.
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