40 SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION [uty 
invariably crevassed on the summits we hoped that by continu- 
ing along this valley we might find some low spot where we could 
cross the ridge on our right, and again get on the safer land ice. 
We however found no such dip, and after some time decided we 
must cross the ridge on our right [an enormous pressure ridge, 
blotting out the moraine and half Terror, rising like a great 
hill]. In doing so we managed to negotiate several rottenly 
bridged narrow crevasses [both Bill and I putting a leg down] 
and one broad one which we only discovered when we were all 
on it with the sledge, and then Bowers dropped suddenly into one 
and hung up in his harness out of sight and out of reach from the 
surface. It was a crevasse I had just put my foot in, but Bowers 
went in even as I shouted a warning. We were too close to one 
another in our harness and the sledge followed us and bridged 
the crevasse. I had hold of Bowers’ harness, while Cherry 
lowered a bowline on the end of the Alpine rope into which 
Bowers got his foot, and then by alternately hauling on one and 
the other we got him up again. After this, for the next few days 
while we were on doubtful ground, I went ahead with 12 or 15 
feet of rope on my trace, and so was able to give good warning 
and to change the course easily if I found we were getting on to 
bad ground. 
[C.-G. gives a fuller account: 
Just over the top Birdie went right down a crevasse, which 
was about wide enough to take him—he went down slowly, his 
head disappearing quite slowly—and he went down till his head 
was four feet below the surface, a little of his harness catching 
up on something. Bill went for his harness, I went for the bow 
of the sledge. Bill told me to get the Alpine rope and Birdie 
directed from below what we could do: we could not possibly 
haul him up as he was, for the sides of the crevasse were soft 
and he could not help himself. I put a bowline on the Alpine 
rope, and lying down over him gave him the loop, which he got 
under his leg. We then pulled him up inch by inch: first by draw- 
ing up his leg he could give one some slack, then raising himself 
on his leg he could give Bill some slack on the harness, and so we 
gradually got him up. It was a near go for Birdie: the crevasse 
was probably about 100 feet deep, and did not narrow as it went 
down. 
It was a wonderful piece of presence of mind that Birdie in 
