chap v CAIRN CAMP 69 



the iirst we unharnessed the pony and led her over, then 

 ourselves dragged and lifted the sledge. The next gully 

 was treated with less respect, and Spits did the hauling 

 with so much good-will and kept her footing so skilfully 

 that we relied upon her cleverness to negotiate all the snow- 

 couloirs that succeeded. Three valleys leading westward 

 opened one after another. In the drainage debris of each 

 were fragments of coal. The swamps about their mouths 

 were laborious to cross. Fog filled all these valleys, so that 

 we could not see up them ; later on we learned that they are 

 merely short trenches eaten back into the old plateau by 

 vigorous streams, some going farther in than others but 

 none being true orographical depressions. Once only this 

 day we just discerned the edge of the snow-field on the 

 plateau, curling over the top of the slope in a huge cornice. 

 Three hours of such work covered about five miles, and 

 was all the pony could accomplish, so we hauled the sledge 

 on to a dry knoll, and set forth to return to camp a good 

 deal wiser and somewhat less enthusiastic than we started. 

 Now that we could have eyes for the view, there was little 

 to be seen. The bay, almost wholly covered with ice, 

 spread abroad beneath the low cliff under a roof of grey 

 cloud, which obscured the hills and saddened the valleys. 

 Everywhere the eye rested on barrenness and desolation. 

 The sighing of wind and the cries of geese by the water's 

 edge alone disturbed the silence of this abandoned place. 

 We returned in our steps, warmed and enlivened by the work 

 done, and presently cheered by a burst of sunshine. It came 

 over us by what seemed to be the grave of a sailor, a mound 

 framed in a ring of stones bearing a board thus inscribed — 



KAPT. VOGELGESANG 



S.S. Columbia 



Hamburg. 

 D. 29. 7 . 1893 



