chap, ix GRIT RIDGE 135 



shuddered to think that we had actually walked, unroped, 

 across so dangerous a place. 



As it was, however, we knew enough to perceive the 

 necessity for care. Advance became cautious as well as 

 slow. Every step was probed in advance. Another crevasse 

 was revealed, then a third, the farther side of which could 

 not be felt. We tracked along it, but could not cross. An 



PROBING FOR HIDDEN CREVASSES. 



hour passed, and we were no nearer Mount Lusitania. The 

 crevasse swept round the whole width of the glacier, and 

 cut us off. There was no wise alternative but to go back. 

 It was taken with regret. We returned in our steps past 

 what we knew to be a crevassed area, then bent off to the 

 right and climbed a higher point on Grit Ridge. The snow 

 remained wet and evil. Its surface glittered with the mere 

 tinsel of water-drops, not with such sparkling ice-brilliants 

 as adorned the snows of Fox Peak. 



Sometime after midnight the top of our second-choice 



