chap, vi LOW SOUND 87 



gems of ice could be identified that rendered up each tone 

 of colour. It was as though we were in presence of some 

 great goddess of old time, whose head was the radiant sun, 

 and her necklace of countless rubies, emeralds, and sapphires. 

 Her robe of snowy samite was sewn all over with diamonds, 

 and her veil was the gossamer mist that lay along the valley. 

 At three A.M. (26th), we were back at Bunting Bluff, and the 

 cloud-bed was just below us. A midge buzzed about and found 

 a final resting-place in a test-tube. The sun was so hot that 

 we lay on the stones and dozed in the genial warmth, but 

 hunger prompted a return to camp. Unwilling to descend 

 by the rotten arete, we bore away west into fog, down a 

 snow ridge where it broadened out to featureless slopes. 

 White snow and white fog were the sole things visible. They 

 melted into one another without dividing line. When the 

 slope became rotten and steep, we bore away to the left and 

 lost all knowledge of our position, save that the camp was 

 somewhere to the north. The compass led down an easy 

 gradient, and presently we found ourselves on a glacier, dis- 

 charging down a steep gully — the second we crossed on the 

 way up. Here at last was water. Long and deep were the 

 draughts of it that I swallowed. Then down again, with here and 

 there a short glissade, and so out on to the easy slopes where 

 the old tracks were rejoined. Camp was reached at five A.M. 

 Supper followed, and as usual took a terribly long time to pre- 

 pare in our cramped quarters. By eight A.M. we were wooing 

 sleep, and the cloud-roof was above our heads, dense as ever. 

 It was after two p.m. when we turned out. The day for me 

 was to be a busy one in camp. The map materials required 

 to be immediately worked up, there were journals to be 

 written, and a letter for our comrades at Advent Point Camp, 

 with a final list of things required for the inland journey and 

 a definite plan formulated. Pedersen went off with pony and 

 sledge to fetch the carcasses of his reindeer. Garwood had 



