Under the direction of Wild they, therefore, collected some big flat
stones, having in many cases to dig down under the snow which was
covering the beach, and with these they erected two substantial walls
four feet high and nineteen feet apart.
"We are all ridiculously weak, and this part of the work was
exceedingly laborious and took us more than twice as long as it would
have done had we been in normal health. Stones that we could easily
have lifted at other times we found quite beyond our capacity, and it
needed two or three of us to carry some that would otherwise have been
one man's load. Our difficulties were added to by the fact that most
of the more suitable stones lay at the farther end of the spit, some
one hundred and fifty yards away. Our weakness is best compared with
that which one experiences on getting up from a long illness; one
'feels' well, but physically enervated.
"The site chosen for the hut was the spot where the stove had been
originally erected on the night of our arrival. It lay between two
large boulders, which, if they would not actually form the walls of the
hut, would at least provide a valuable protection from the wind.
Further protection was provided to the north by a hill called Penguin
Hill at the end of the spit. As soon as the walls were completed and
squared off, the two boats were laid upside down on them side by side.
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