THE DIFFICULT ROAD 79 



the dogs out of the harness, which always remained 

 attached to the traces on the sledges, and tethering 

 them to the steel ropes, one of the guides took a 

 chosen victim to some distance from the camp, and 

 felled it with a blow from an ice-axe, then opened it, 

 skinned it quickly, divided it up into ten shares and 

 distributed these to the dogs, already destined to 

 undergo the same fate, these being the weakest and 

 most ailing in short, this was the elimination of the 

 unfit. 



On the 22nd of March the first detachment began 

 its return journey ; it consisted of Lieutenant Querini 

 and two men, and it was never heard of again. The 

 way northwards continued extremely difficult, with 

 channels and ridges plentiful and the road so rough 

 that the sledges began to break up in the bows and 

 runners, some at last so badly that their fragments had 

 to be used to repair the others with. On the 31st the 

 second detachment was sent back, consisting of the 

 doctor and two men, and it got safely to the ship. The 

 third detachment, consisting of Cagni with two Cour- 

 mayeur guides Petigax and Fenoillet and a sailor, 

 Canepa, all four Italians, made the final effort. That 

 day they were on level ice and covered seventeen miles, 

 but at night a snowstorm came on and there was 

 trouble. After a rest they pressed forward in rapid 

 marches amid bad weather over the drifting fields. On 

 the 12th of April while raising camp a strong pressure 

 piled up within a hundred yards of them a wall from 

 thirty-six to forty-five feet high, the highest ridge they 

 had seen. Enormous blocks rolled down towards them 

 with loud crashes after being thrown up by other 



