178 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Mar. 



inclined to our right front until it was evident we were crossing 

 a steep slope on which it was more and more difficult to keep 

 a foothold. . . . About ten minutes after we had left the sledges, 

 Hare, who was at the rear of the party, was reported to be 

 missing, and at this moment an unusually violent squall pre- 

 vented us from seeing even one another. I immediately 

 ordered a chain to be formed at right angles and extending 

 across our track, each man keeping in touch with the next with 

 the idea of intercepting Hare when he came on. We shouted 

 and blew whistles, and whilst this was going on, Evans stepped 

 back on to a patch of bare smooth ice, fell, and shot out of 

 sight immediately.' 



Thinking the slope to be one of the short ones so common 

 in the folds of the hills, Barne cautioned his men to remain 

 where they were ; and sitting down, deliberately started to slide 

 in Evans's tract. In a moment or two the slope grew steeper, 

 and soon he was going at a pace which left him with no power 

 to control his movements ; he whipped out his clasp knife and 

 dug it into the ice, but the blade snapped off short and failed 

 to check his wild career. In the mad rush he had time to 

 realise the mistake that had been made and to wonder vaguely 

 what would come next. In a flash, ice changed to snow, which 

 grew softer until, in a smother of flying particles, his rapid flight 

 was arrested, and he stood up to find Evans within a few feet 

 of him. They had scarcely exchanged greetings when a third 

 figure came hurtling down on them out of the gloom and was 

 brought to rest at their feet. This was Quartley, who, growing 

 impatient at Barne's absence, and of course ignorant of what 

 lay below, had started to slide down on the same track, and 

 had been swept down the descent in the same breathless manner. 

 Realising the impossibility of ascending again by the way they 

 had come, they started to descend, but within four paces of the 

 place at which they had been brought to rest they found that 

 the slope ended suddenly in a steep precipice beyond which 

 they could see nothing but the clouds of whirling snow. Even 

 as they recoiled from this new danger and dimly realised the 

 merciful patch of soft snow which had saved them from it, a 



