90 VOYAGE TO THE POLAR SEA. April 



by Lieutenant Eawson in his flying visit a few days 

 before. He certainly was justified, so far as lie saw, 

 in making a favourable report of the travelling, but 

 another six miles would have told a different tale, for 

 it was not until the second day that our difficulties 

 commenced. Early in the journey we came to a point 

 covered so deeply with drift snow that it almost rose 

 to the level of the huge hummock mass forced on the 

 end of the point. This drift, like all accumulations 

 of snow which the wind makes on meeting with an 

 obstacle, left a deep and precipitous gap between it 

 and the hummock, and our only way past was to climb 

 the snow-hill. It was. so steep and slippery that the 

 eight-man sledge had to be partly unloaded, and then 

 each sledge hauled over separately by all hands. This 

 point we named Drift Point. 



' The coast beyond this trended to the north-east- 

 ward, and was one continuous, steep, slippery, snow- 

 slope. Sometimes, where the shore hummocks were 

 high, there was a ledge at the bottom covered with 

 deep soft snow, but more generally the slope ended in 

 a straight drop of from five to fifteen feet on to the ice. 



4 The next point was very much the same as Drift 

 Point, and the slopes continued for some distance 

 beyond. We had to double-man the sledges to get on 

 at all, and even then our progress was very slow. To 

 prevent losing ground, and to clear what we took to 

 calling the " drift-pits," which existed in a greater or 

 less degree round every hummock, we had to keep 

 dragging up-hill as well as forward, and thus, making 

 a great deal of lee-way, the sledges were hauled along 

 by degrees. 



