chap, xiii WATERFALL CAMP 187 



each, but we cared little, for nothing could be worse than 

 existing circumstances. Forward movement would be a 

 relief, into whatever troubles it might lead. The ponies 

 were unusually willing and co-operative from the start. I 

 went off ahead to prove the ground, and Bergen followed, 

 treading piously in my footsteps, and hardly ever hanging 

 back. We took a new route, keeping down close by the 

 river-side, where there were great snow beds and banks. 

 Earlier in the season an arch of ice entirely covered the 

 stream and extended a hundred yards or so on either side. 

 The arch had broken in, and its abutments had in conse- 

 quence crevassed longitudinally, as well as transversely at 

 the entrance of the still over-arched side-streams. The 

 transverse crevasses had to be crossed. They were not 

 wide, but they were broader than a pony's stride, and their 

 edges were rotten. The beasts, therefore, had to jump. As 

 Garwood said, it was the Spitsbergen Grand National. 

 Bergen's behaviour at the first jump was amusing. Observe 

 that we never beat the ponies, we had nothing to beat them 

 with, for the whip was voted a nuisance, and after being 

 tied on to the sledge for a few marches was ignominiously 

 left behind. The beasts lived with us, marched with us, and 

 were like members of the party. They almost shared our 

 tents, and they looked to us for their little luxuries of 

 biscuits and sugar. Thus they had become as tame as 

 dogs, and responded to vocal encouragement with remark- 

 able confidence. I was on the far side of the crevasse, 

 where I trod a firm landing-place. Bergen was on the 

 other brink. There were bogs and starvation behind, hunger 

 in the midst, and a chance of oats ahead. He deliberated, 

 pawed a little on the snowy edge, and then jumped. The 

 result was a triumphant success. Where Bergen went, 

 Spits would follow. We found, too late, that their names 

 ought to have been transposed. Other crevasses succeeded 



