AN INLAND CAMP. 



CHAPTER VII 



ADVENT VALE TO THE SASSENDAL 



IT is perhaps needless to say that the morrow after the 

 laborious expedition recorded in the previous chapter 

 was a day of rest and writing, for there was much to be 

 written up and plotted in. Hour after hour the wind howled 

 and the tent boomed and blustered, but there was no low 

 fog, so that as we sat on the tent floor we could always see 

 the fjord, here steel-grey where ice covered it, there blue or 

 purple in the changing lights, whilst the slopes and bogs that 

 framed it in, now almost bare of snow, displayed a richness 

 of dark tones not easily surpassed. The sight of Advent 

 Point served to remind us how short was the distance inland 

 thus far covered. If the severe labour we had undergone had 

 only brought us thus far, how difficult would be the task of 

 crossing the island even at its narrowest neck ! 



With evening came a downpour of torrential rain, to the 

 amazement and disgust of Garwood, who had withdrawn to 

 the retirement of his sleeping-bag whilst some of his things 

 were out for an airing. Either they or he must be soused — 

 a miserable alternative. How the rain rattled on the tent, 



