STILL DOWNHILL 75 



work, we turned in again and slept till 6 a.m., when we 

 began our morning preparations. The weather, which 

 had somewhat improved during the night, had now 

 broken loose again, and the north-easter was doing all 

 it could. However, it would take more than storm 

 and snow to stop us now, since we had discovered the 

 nature of our immediate surroundings; if we once got 

 down to the plain, we knew that we could always feel 

 our way on. 



After putting ample brakes on the sledge-runners, 

 we started off downhill in a south-easterly direction. 

 The slight idea of the position that we had been able to 

 get in the morning proved correct. The descent was 

 easy and smooth, and we reached the plain without any 

 adventure. We could now once more set our faces to 

 the south, and in thick driving snow we continued our 

 way into the unknown, with good assistance from the 

 howling north-easterly gale. We now recommenced 

 the erection of beacons, which had not been necessary 

 during the ascent. In the course of the forenoon we 

 again passed over a little ridge, the last of them that 

 we encountered. The surface was now fine enough, 

 smooth as a floor and without a sign of sastrugi. 

 If our progress was nevertheless slow and difficult, tliis 

 was due to the wretched going, which was real torture 

 to all of us. A sledge journey through the Sahara 

 could not have offered a worse surface to move 

 over. Now the forerunners came into their own, and 



