They were under the impression then that they had no chloroform, but
they found some subsequently in the medicine-chest after we had left.
Some cases of stores left on a rock off the spit on the day of our
arrival were retrieved during this day. We were setting aside stores
for the boat journey and choosing the essential equipment from the
scanty stock at our disposal. Two ten-gallon casks had to be filled
with water melted down from ice collected at the foot of the glacier.
This was a rather slow business. The blubber-stove was kept going all
night, and the watchmen emptied the water into the casks from the pot
in which the ice was melted. A working party started to dig a hole in
the snow-slope about forty feet above sea-level with the object of
providing a site for a camp. They made fairly good progress at first,
but the snow drifted down unceasingly from the inland ice, and in the
end the party had to give up the project.
The weather was fine on April 23, and we hurried forward our
preparations. It was on this day I decided finally that the crew for
the 'James Caird' should consist of Worsley, Crean, McNeish, McCarthy,
Vincent, and myself. A storm came on about noon, with driving snow and
heavy squalls. Occasionally the air would clear for a few minutes, and
we could see a line of pack-ice, five miles out, driving across from
west to east.
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