228 THE EASTERN SLEDGE JOURNEY 



here without ski; that would be a terrible punishment; 

 but with ski on one's feet and in such weather it was 

 pure enjoyment. 



Meanwhile the new sights we expected were slow in 

 coming. We marched for four days due east without 

 seeing a sign of change in the ground; there was the 

 same undulating surface that we knew so well from 

 previous expeditions. The readings of the hypsometer 

 gave practically the same result day after day; the 

 ascent we were looking for failed to appear. 



Stubberud, who for the first day or two after leaving 

 the depot had been constantly stretching himself on 

 tiptoe and looking out for mountain-tops, finally gave 

 it as his heartfelt conviction that this King Edward 

 Land we were hunting for was only a confounded 

 " Flyaway Land," which had nothing to do with reality. 

 We others were not yet quite prepared to share this 

 view; for my own part, in any case, I was loth to give 

 up the theory that assumed a southward continuation 

 of King Edward Land along the 158th meridian; this 

 theory had acquired a certain force during the winter, 

 and was mainly supported by the fact that on the 

 second depot journey we had seen, between the 81st 

 and 82nd parallels, some big pressure-ridges, which 

 suggested the presence of bare land in a south-easterly 

 direction. 



On November 16 we found ourselves at the 158th 

 meridian, but on every side the eye encountered the 



