TREACHEROUS CRACKS 355 



We passed one or two very broad (30 feet) bridged cre- 

 vasses with the usual gaping sides; they were running pretty 

 well in N. and S. direction. The weather has been beautifully 

 fine all day as it was last night. (Night Temp. —9°.) This 

 morning there was an hour or so of haze due to clouds from 

 the N. Now it is perfectly clear, and we get a fine view of 

 the mountain behind which Wilson has just been sketching. 



Satwday, December 23. — Lunch. Bar. 22-01. Rise 370? 

 Started at 8, steering S.W. Seemed to be rising, and went on 

 well for about 3 hours, then got amongst bad crevasses and hard 

 waves. We pushed on to S.W., but things went from bad to 

 worse, and we had to haul out to the north, then west. West 

 looks clear for the present, but it is not a very satisfactory 

 direction. We have done 8^' (geo.), a good march. (T. -3°. 

 Southerly wind, force 2.) The comfort is that we are rising. 

 On one slope we got a good view of the land and the pressure 

 ridges to the S.E. They seem to be disposed ' en echelon ' and 

 gave me the idea of shearing cracks. They seemed to lessen as 

 we ascend. It is rather trying having to march so far to the 

 west, but if we keep rising we must come to the end of the 

 obstacles some time. 



Saturday night. — Camp 45. T. -3°. Bar. 2i-6i. ? Rise. 

 Height about 7750. Great vicissitudes of fortune in the after- 

 noon march. Started west up a slope — about the fifth we have 

 mounted in the last two days. On top, another pressure ap- 

 peared on the left, but less lofty and more snow-covered than that 

 which had troubled us in the morning. There was temptation to 

 try it, and I had been gradually turning in its direction. But I 

 stuck to my principle and turned west up yet another slope. 

 On top of this we got on the most extraordinary surface — nar- 

 row crevasses ran in all directions. They were quite invisible, 

 being covered with a thin crust of hardened neve without a sign 

 of a crack in it. We all fell in one after another and sometimes 

 two together. We have had many unexpected falls before, but 

 usually through being unable to mark the run of the surface 

 appearances of cracks, or where such cracks are covered with 

 soft snow. How a hardened crust can form over a crack is a 

 real puzzle — it seems to argue extremely slow movement. 



Dead reckoning, 85° 22' i" S., 159° 31' E. 



In the broader crevasses this morning we noticed that it 



