It was so warm that I could have
slept very comfortably.
I have been amused and pleased lately in observing the manners
and customs of the persons in charge of our stores; quite a number
of secret caches exist in which articles of value are hidden from
public knowledge so that they may escape use until a real necessity
arises. The policy of every storekeeper is to have something up his
sleeve for a rainy day. For instance, Evans (P.O.), after thoroughly
examining the purpose of some individual who is pleading for a piece
of canvas, will admit that he may have a small piece somewhere which
could be used for it, when, as a matter of fact, he possesses quite
a number of rolls of that material.
Tools, metal material, leather, straps and dozens of items are
administered with the same spirit of jealous guardianship by Day,
Lashly, Oates and Meares, while our main storekeeper Bowers even
affects to bemoan imaginary shortages. Such parsimony is the best
guarantee that we are prepared to face any serious call.
_Wednesday, July_ 12.--All night and to-day wild gusts of wind shaking
the hut; long, ragged, twisted wind-cloud in the middle heights. A
watery moon shining through a filmy cirrostratus--the outlook
wonderfully desolate with its ghostly illumination and patchy clouds
of flying snow drift. It would be hardly possible for a tearing, raging
wind to make itself more visible.
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