1903] A GOOD ROAD 153 



and pinnacles, which looked unscalable, whilst on our left 

 were the steep bare hillsides ; soon the glacier stream came 

 to an end, and we were forced to consider what was next to be 

 done. 



As a result of our consultation some of the party climbed 

 the hillside to prospect, whilst Skelton and I attacked the 

 glacier. We fully expected to discover a mass of broken ice 

 extending right across the inlet, but were agreeably surprised 

 to find, first, that by carefully selecting our route we could 

 work our way to the summit of the disturbance ; and, secondly, 

 that beyond our immediate neighbourhood the high, sharp 

 ice-hillocks settled down into more gradual ridges. This im- 

 plied that to the north things were smoother, and after our 

 short reconnaissance and a confirming report from the hills, 

 we occupied the rest of the day in carrying our loads and 

 sledges in the direction we had chosen across the disturbance. 

 It was a difficult portage, but by night we were camped in a 

 small dip well in on the glacier surface. 



Those who have seen glaciers in a mountainous country 

 will recall the regular and beautiful curves they present in 

 sweeping around the sharp turns of the valleys they occupy. 

 It was such a curve that the Ferrar Glacier now showed us as 

 we looked westward on the morning of the i6th; its surface, 

 as we afterwards found, was comparatively regular, but in the 

 distance it looked like a smooth polished road — a ribbon of 

 blue down the centre of which ran a dark streak caused by a 

 double line of boulders. On each side towered the massive 

 cliffs and steep hillsides which limited its course. But the 

 foot of this promising road was some way from us, and we 

 had still four or five miles of unviewed surface to cross before 

 we could reach it. Here, again, we were agreeably surprised, 

 for instead of further ice disturbances we found our way 

 gradually growing smoother, and in the afternoon we reached 

 the incline without further difficulty. 



What followed was easy. We proceeded to ascend the 

 smooth icy surface of the glacier until we came abreast of 

 Cathedral Rocks, and when their lofty pinnacles towered three 



