A CHANGE IN THE GROUND 95 



come upon another kind of ground; for once we had 

 not been made fools of. Not that we had an unbroken, 

 level surface to go upon — it would be a long time before 

 we came to that — but we were able to keep our course 

 for long stretches at a time. The huge crevasses 

 became rarer, and so filled up at both ends that we were 

 able to cross them without going a long way round. 

 There was new life in all of us, both dogs and men, and 

 we went rapidly southward. As we advanced, the 

 conditions improved more and more. We could see in 

 the distance some huge dome-shaped formations, that 

 seemed to tower high into the air: these turned out 

 to be the southernmost limit of the big crevasses 

 and to form the transition to the third phase of the 

 glacier. 



It was a stiff climb to get up these domes, which 

 were fairly high and swept smooth by the wind. They 

 lay straight in our course, and from their tops we had a 

 good view. The surface we were entering upon was 

 quite different from that on the northern side of the 

 domes. Here the big crevasses were entirely filled with 

 snow and might be crossed anywhere. What specially 

 attracted one's attention here was an immense number 

 of small formations in the shape of haycocks. Great 

 stretches of the surface were swept bare, exposing the 

 smooth ice. 



It was evident that these various formations or phases 

 in the glacier were due to the underlying ground. The 



