_Wednesday, January_ ll.--A week here to-day--it seems quite a month,
so much has been crammed into a short space of time.

The threatened blizzard materialised at about four o'clock this
morning. The wind increased to force six or seven at the ship, and
continued to blow, with drift, throughout the forenoon.

Campbell and his sledging party arrived at the Camp at 8.0
A.M. bringing a small load: there seemed little object, but I suppose
they like the experience of a march in the blizzard. They started
to go back, but the ship being blotted out, turned and gave us their
company at breakfast. The day was altogether too bad for outside work,
so we turned our attention to the hut interior, with the result that
to-night all the matchboarding is completed. The floor linoleum is
the only thing that remains to be put down; outside, the roof and ends
have to be finished. Then there are several days of odd jobs for the
carpenter, and all will be finished. It is a first-rate building in
an extraordinarily sheltered spot; whilst the wind was raging at the
ship this morning we enjoyed comparative peace. Campbell says there
was an extraordinary change as he approached the beach.

I sent two or three people to dig into the hard snow drift behind
the camp; they got into solid ice immediately, became interested
in the job, and have begun the making of a cave which is to be our
larder. Already they have tunnelled 6 or 8 feet in and have begun
side channels. In a few days they will have made quite a spacious
apartment--an ideal place to keep our meat store. We had been
speculating as to the origin of this solid drift and attached great
antiquity to it, but the diggers came to a patch of earth with skua