392 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



to a depth of sixteen fathoms ; on hauling it up I found both 

 spirit and indicator stood at — to°, so I imagine this to be 

 about the mean temperature of the ice masses in this region. 



' When we halted to-night our dog-trace lay across one of 

 these crevasses, and little " Kid " promptly coiled himself down 

 on the middle of the snow-bridge ; had he been allowed to 

 remain he would certainly have melted himself through in an 

 hour or two, and would have become a very surprised dog. 

 Luckily, we saw his position, and rescued him in time.' 



'• Septeinber 30. — Starting at 7.15, and still steering east, we 

 soon passed out of the region of crevasses and turned to the 

 south. The weather was brilliant, the sun shone forth in a 

 cloudless sky, and the temperature was exceptionally high at 

 — 20°. At lunch we were about ten miles east of the extremity 

 of the Bluff, and the scene was very impressive. Far to the 

 north, clothed in soft white folds of snow, lay the imposing 

 mass of Erebus and Terror ; to the north- west towered Mount 

 Discovery and the Western Range, whilst behind us also lay 

 the various islands and foothills on which we have gazed 

 throughout the winter. To the west we could see that the 

 Bluff ended abruptly, being but a long peninsula thrust out 

 into the great ice-sheet. Beyond the Bluff our eyes rested 

 searchingly on the new country that rose above our snowy 

 horizon. It seemed to stretch in isolated masses ever increasing 

 in distance ; but beyond the fact that the coast curves sharply 

 away to the west we could make little of it. 



* But the most impressive fact of all was that from this new 

 western land through the south, through the east, and away to 

 the slopes of Terror, there stretched an unbroken horizon line, 

 and as the eye ranged through this immense arc and met 

 nothing but the level snow-carpet below and the cloudless sky 

 above, one seemed to realise an almost limitless possibility to 

 the extent of the great snow-plain on which we travel. 



' Hope of finding land beyond the Bluff to which we could 

 advance our depot was now at an end, and this afternoon we 

 steered south-west to close the Bluff and to look for landmarks. 

 An excellent line was at length suggested by Shackleton, who, 



