72 SPITSBERGEN chap, v 



eyes constantly on the watch for momentary glimpses, which 

 may reveal the structure of the country and by degrees 

 build up in his mind a clear conception of the forms and 

 relations of mountains, ridges, and valleys, to which such 

 accurate observations as he may have been able to make 

 serve to give precision. When the journey is ended, and 

 the map redrawn at home, it often happens that the parti- 

 cular photographs which were relied upon for certain details 

 prove to be failures. All your other blunders and omissions 

 then become apparent, and ultimately what you get for 

 your pains is a survey in which any fool can detect errors 

 and manifest them as proofs of your incapacity. Yet sur- 

 veying a new land, with all its troubles, possesses great 

 fascinations. It is delightful to behold the blank paper 

 slowly covered with the semblance, however vague, of a 

 portion of the earth's surface before unmapped. The 

 interest of every view is increased when it has to be 

 analysed structurally. Each mile traversed explains the mile 

 that went before. Each corner turned reveals a tantalising 

 secret. Every march solves a problem and leaves in the 

 heart of the surveyor a delightful sense of something 

 accomplished. 



Gregory and I parted as we saw Garwood approaching 

 with the tandem of ponies dragging the loud-complaining 

 sledge. Both animals worked well, the timid Bergen on the 

 whole better than phlegmatic Spits, who sometimes jibbed. 

 Gaily the two of them hauled the sledge over the shelves 

 of the terraced slopes above the west bank of Advent Bay, 

 ploughing it through the snow-couloirs, and tearing it over 

 slopes of rock-debris, which scraped away the edges of the 

 ash ski-runners far too quickly. When the second sledge 

 was reached, the loads were rearranged and on we went. 



All clay long the light was pale and feeble, like that of a 

 cloudy English afternoon in December. Cold showers fell 



