was no difficulty in making a selection, but as there was also some
danger of hurting the feelings of those whose contributions had
been rejected, a supplementary journal named _The Blizzard_ was
produced. This publication, however, had but a brief career, for
in spite of some good caricatures and a very humorous frontispiece
by Barne, it was so inferior to the _S. P. T._ that even its
contributors realized that their mission in life did not lie in
the paths of literary composition. _The Blizzard_, in short, served
its purpose, and then ceased to exist.

In considering the arrangements to make the ship comfortable during
the dark months, the question of artificial light was as difficult as
it was important. Paraffin had from the first been suggested as the most
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suitable illuminant, its main disadvantage being that it is not
a desirable oil to carry in quantities in a ship. 'Our luckiest
find,' Scott says, 'was perhaps the right sort of lamp in which to
burn this oil. Fortunately an old Arctic explorer, Captain Egerton,
presented me with a patent lamp in which the draught is produced
by a fan worked by clockwork mechanism, and no chimney is needed.
One can imagine the great mortality there would be in chimneys
if we were obliged to employ them, so that when, on trial, this
lamp was found to give an excellent light, others of the same sort
were purchased, and we now use them exclusively in all parts of
the ship with extremely satisfactory results.'

There was, however, a still brighter illuminant within their reach
in the shape of acetylene, but not until it became certain that
they would have to spend a second winter in the Antarctic, did
their thoughts fly to the calcium carbide which had been provided