The exact adjustment of the boats took some time, but was of paramount
importance if our structure was to be the permanent affair that we
hoped it would be. Once in place they were securely chocked up and
lashed down to the rocks. The few pieces of wood that we had were laid
across from keel to keel, and over this the material of one of the torn
tents was spread and secured with guys to the rocks. The walls were
ingeniously contrived and fixed up by Marston. First he cut the now
useless tents into suitable lengths; then he cut the legs of a pair of
seaboots into narrow strips, and using these in much the same way that
the leather binding is put round the edge of upholstered chairs, he
nailed the tent-cloth all round the insides of the outer gunwales of
the two boats in such a way that it hung down like a valance to the
ground, where it was secured with spars and oars. A couple of
overlapping blankets made the door, superseded later by a sack-mouth
door cut from one of the tents. This consisted of a sort of tube of
canvas sewn on to the tent-cloth, through which the men crawled in or
out, tying it up as one would the mouth of a sack as soon as the man
had passed through. It is certainly the most convenient and efficient
door for these conditions that has ever been invented.
"Whilst the side walls of the hut were being fixed, others proceeded
to fill the interstices between the stones of the end walls with snow.
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