328 SPITSBERGEN chap, xxiv 



us, though we were already tightly packed. It now became 

 difficult even to breathe ; turning round was utterly out of the 

 question. At 6.30 A.M. I could stand the position no longer. 

 I sounded the reveille by a sneeze which effectually aroused 

 my companions. 



The weather was precisely the same as the evening before, 

 thick fog and a slight snowfall. Occasionally we could see 

 an outline of the foot of the mountain, and our tracks over 

 the neve nearly obliterated by fresh snow. The thermometer 

 registered nine degrees of frost, but it must have been con- 

 siderably colder than this during the night. At 9.30 it was 

 still snowing hard, but about one o'clock the fog cleared 

 slightly, and Bottolfsen pluckily volunteered to go back to 

 the ship for provisions and spirit ; to my surprise the cook 

 willingly agreed to accompany him. We watched them dis- 

 appear down our tracks until the fog hid them from sight. 

 Then with a sigh of content Trevor-Battye and I wrapped 

 ourselves in the blanket and dozed till four P.M. We were 

 roused by an unusual glow in the tent, and, looking out, 

 found the sun shining and most of the mountains free from 

 fog. Scrambling into our boots, we ascended to the highest 

 point of the ridge on which our camp stood. 



The view was very fine. Bands of cloud were rolling 

 away over the sky, and the sun shone through them. We 

 could see the whole of yesterday's route, and away down in 

 the bay a little black speck indicated the position of the 

 Expres. In front of us rose the black and precipitous face 

 of Mount Hedgehog, forming a wall nearly two miles in 

 length, crested by an almost horizontal arete. Here and 

 there a few small gensdarmes protruded. The summit of 

 the mountain rises from the southern end of this arete, 

 where it joins the western buttress, which ran steeply 

 down towards our camp, but, before reaching the neve, this 

 buttress rises again into an irregular ridge connected with 



