38 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Dec. 



'■December 17. — We roused out yesterday afternoon at 

 3 P.M. in very bright sunshine. To our astonishment, a couple 

 of hundred yards behind us lay the end of the chasm which 

 stood between us and the coast ; it gradually narrows to a 

 crevasse, which in places is bridged over with snow, but in 

 others displays a yawning gulf. We must have crossed it 

 within a few feet of such a gulf ; our sledge track could be 

 seen quite clearly leading across the bridge. Not suspecting 

 anything of this sort we were quite regardless of danger 

 during our last march, and unconsciously passed within an 

 ace of destruction. It certainly has been a very close shave, 

 as we could scarcely have escaped at the best without broken 

 limbs had we fallen into the hole, and one doesn't like to 

 contemplate broken limbs out here. 



'This new light on the chasm seems to show that it is 

 caused by a stream of ice pressing out through the strait to the 

 north against the main mass of the barrier ; this would naturally 

 have such a rending effect on either side of the entrance. We 

 have got the dogs on seven miles to-night ; they need a lot of 

 driving, especially as the surface has become irregular, with 

 wavy undulations. It is almost impossible to make out how 

 these waves run. As the chill of the evening comes on 

 now, a mist arises along the whole coastline and obscures 

 the land; for this reason we are the more anxious to get 

 back into day-marches, and we shall make a much earlier 

 start to-morrow.' 



^December 18. — Started at 5 p.m. and finished at midnight. 

 The short hours are to get to earlier marches, but I begin to 

 doubt whether we shall ever be able to work the dogs for much 

 more than eight hours again ; the poor creatures are generally 

 in a healthier state with the fresh food, but all are very weak 

 and thin. With such a load as we now have there would have 

 been no holding them when we left the ship ; as someone said 

 to-day, " If only we could come across some good, fat seals, 

 we could camp for a week and start fair again." It is curious 

 to think that there is possibly not a living thing within two 

 hundred miles of us. Bad as the dog-driving is, however, the 



