AN UGLY TRAP 257 



far to the west; then, instead of arriving at the ridge, 

 as we had done before, they came down into the valley, 

 and there found a surface so dangerous that they nearly 

 had a catastrophe. It was a precisely similar piece of 

 surface to that already mentioned to the south of 81 S., 

 but full of small hummocks everywhere. The ground 

 was apparently solid enough, and this was just the most 

 dangerous thing about it; but, as they were crossing it, 

 large pieces of the surface fell away just in rear of them, 

 disclosing bottomless crevasses, big enough to swallow 

 up everything men, dogs, and sledges. With some 

 difficulty they got out of this ugly place by steering to 

 the east. Now we knew of it, and we should certainly 

 be very careful not to come that way again. In spite 

 of this, however, we afterwards had an even more 

 serious encounter with this nasty trap. 



One dog had also been left behind on the way; it 

 had a wound on one of its feet, and could not be 

 harnessed in the sledge. It had been let loose a few 

 miles to the north of the depot, doubtless with the idea 

 that it would follow the sledges. But the dog seemed 

 to have taken another view of the matter, and was 

 never seen again. There were some who thought that 

 the dog had probably returned to the depot, and was 

 now passing its days in ease and luxury among the 

 laboriously transported seals' carcasses. I must confess 

 that this idea was not very attractive to me; there was, 

 indeed, a possibility that such a thing had happened, 



VOL. I. 17 



