150 THE RETURN TO FRAMHEIM 



it suited us, and take no notice of day or night; for 

 some time past we had all been sick of the long hours 

 of rest, and wanted to break them up at any price. As 

 I have said, the weather could not have been finer: 

 brilliantly clear and a dead calm. The temperature 

 of - 2'2° F. felt altogether like summer in this bright, 

 still air. Before we began our march all unnecessary 

 clothes were taken off and put on the sledges. It 

 almost looked as if everything would be considered 

 superfluous, and the costume in which we finally started 

 would no doubt have been regarded as somewhat un- 

 seemly in our latitudes. We smiled and congratulated 

 ourselves that at present no ladies had reached the 

 Antarctic regions, or they might have objected to our 

 extremely comfortable and serviceable costume. The 

 high land now stood out still more sharply. It was very 

 interesting to see in these conditions the country we 

 had gone through on the southward trip in the thickest 

 blizzard. We had" then been going along the foot of 

 this immense mountain chain without a suspicion of 

 how near we were to it, or how colossal it was. The 

 ground was fortunately quite undisturbed in this part. 

 I say fortunately, as Heaven knows what would have 

 happened to us if we had been obliged to cross a crevassed 

 surface in such weather as we then had. Perhaps we 

 should liave managed it — perhaps not. 



The journey before us was a stiff' one, as the Butcher's 

 lay 2,680 feet higher than the place where we were. 



