104 THROUGH THE MOUNTAIXS 



the scene from a point a little way in advance, where 

 we had arrived when it happened. As the photography- 

 took rather a long time, I assumed that the crevasse 

 was one of the filled ones and presented no particular 

 danger, but that Bjaaland wanted to have a souvenir 

 among his photographs of the numerous crevasses and 

 ticklish situations we had been exposed to. As to the 

 crack being filled up, there was of course no need to 

 inquire. I hailed them, and asked how they were 

 getting on. "Oh, all right," was the answer; "we've 

 just finished." — " What does the crevasse look like?" — 

 "Oh, as usual," they shouted back; "no bottom." I 

 mention this little incident just to show how one can 

 grow accustomed to anything in this world. There 

 were these two — Wisting and Hassel — lying over a 

 yawning, bottomless abyss, and having their photo- 

 graph taken; neither of them gave a thought to the 

 serious side of the situation. To judge from the laughter 

 and jokes we heard, one would have thought their posi- 

 tion was something quite different. 



When the photographer had quietly and leisurely 

 finished his work — he got a remarkably good picture 

 of the scene — the other two together raised the sledge, 

 and the journey was continued. It was at this crevasse 

 that we entered his Majesty's Ballroom. The surface, 

 did not really look bad. True, the snow was blown 

 away, which made it difficult to advance, but we did 

 not see many cracks. There were a good many pressure- 



