2i2 SPITSBERGEN chap, xv 



and all the maze of puzzling mountains round from it to the 

 Advent Vale Bluffs, with the Baldhead right in the foreground 

 — work in them alone for an hour, but before we had well 

 realised what they were, cloud covered them up. Then there 

 was the splendid fjord, away to Cape Boheman, with count- 

 less hills beyond it — low ones near the coast, and isolated 

 big fellows behind — the Colosseum, the Capitol, and unnamed 

 giants far inland. 



We stamped and slapped our arms about, and scrawled 

 crooked notes, and took hurried sights and photographs — 

 but it was all of little use ; one could not quietly reason 

 things out with frozen body and ringers recently roasted, and 

 now submitted to a cold-storage process. For half-an-hour 

 we suffered and laboured, then made a wild bolt for the 

 pass, and left the storm to rage amongst the senseless rocks. 

 Down we went by a shorter route, plunging again over 

 concealed crevasses, into one of which I slipped a foot. It 

 was fortunately small, and we were in no temper to bother 

 about trifles. The wind did not reach far down. On the 

 leveller glacier it was only a slow, cold air-current, and by the 

 moraines it was almost still. There at last we halted under 

 the lee of a big rock, ate our biscuits, and wished for some- 

 thing more solid. Continuing the descent we found better 

 going on the right bank of the valley for some distance, then 

 crossed the river by lucky stepping-stones, and so ultimately 

 returned to camp with dry feet, for the first time in Spits- 

 bergen, after a most fatiguing expedition. Never did the 

 shelter of tents seem more delightful, or a hot meal more 

 soul-satisfying. When the canvas doors were tightly closed 

 and the pipe of solace was lit — in which Gregory knew not 

 to' share — little cared I that the weather was again broken 

 and the future utterly obscure. 



Next morning at breakfast we had a momentary vision of 

 release ; we thought there was a boat off Hyperite Hat, 



