84 SPITSBERGEN chap, vi 



At the point of the bluff, when we arrived, a little snow- 

 bunting greeted us in so cheery a fashion that we named the 

 place Bunting Bluff (2480 feet) after him. The view in all 

 directions was now brilliantly clear. Advent Point lay like a 

 needle across the bay's mouth. A sloop off it was a tiny 

 dot on the bright water. The large mountain area behind 

 Cape Boheman, extending from Nord Fjord to Keerwyk, 

 was visible in sparkling detail from side to side, with its 

 three great glaciers flowing down between narrow mountain 

 ranges. At the foot of one are large hills of moraine, visible 

 from afar. The sunshine was warm. There was no wind. 

 To live was joy. Our meal consisted of an Emergency 

 tablet, a biscuit, and a lime-juice nodule ! Burning a 

 tobacco sacrifice, we returned thanks that we were not, as 

 an Alpine party, burdened with the carriage of bottles of 

 red wine and bulky foods. But how good a bottle of wine 

 would have been, carried by some one else ! 



The plateau behind rose into a low wide mound that 

 hid all the southern prospect, and would command a more 

 complete panorama. We wandered up it, one after the other, 

 rejoicing in the splendour of the sunlight on the snow, and 

 leaving the rope behind. The full extent of our section of 

 the plateau now became apparent. It bent away to right 

 and left, sinking to Fox and Bolter Valleys, and ultimately 

 narrowing to a mere ridge, at the far end of which, about 

 two miles away, was a broad snow peak, shutting off the 

 view we most desired to behold. The attraction was too 

 strong. With mutual consent we set forth towards the 

 peak. No one mentioned the rope, for who would expect 

 hidden crevasses in so even an area. As a matter of fact, 

 the place was a maze of crevasses, but the snow was so hard 

 that we trod through it into very few. Plodding, plodding, 

 plodding, the wide white area was at length crossed to the 

 foot of the easy snow-ridge, where a brown patch emerged. 



