1903] A FRESH START 173 



an hour. Of course when they saw us they made in our 

 direction, and when quite close stood up and squawked loudly. 

 They watched us for some time with every manifestation of 

 amazement, and then started to follow in our wake, but of this 

 they soon tired, and resuming their old course to the south, 

 were shortly out of sight.' 



In preparation for our renewed struggle with the hard ice 

 of the glacier, we had brought with us some under-runners 

 shod with German silver, and at the glacier tongue we picked 

 up all the scraps of this metal which we had formerly discarded. 



* October 28. — We are camped opposite Descent Pass after 

 a hard day. This morning early we had a glorious view of the 

 glacier valley. The sun shone brightly on the great gaunt cliffs 

 which rose one above the other towards the inland, and every 

 outHne was sharp against the deep blue sky. Later, low sheets 

 of stratus cloud spread across the valley and shimmered in the 

 sunlight. This afternoon a nimbus cloud crept in over our 

 heads, bringing a trifling snowfall ; the sun struggled against it, 

 but for the time the valley was clothed in mists. 



' Troubles have already come upon us ; the under-runners 

 of our sledge split on the first incline, and we had to take them 

 off. The metal on one of the runners on which we now rely 

 is badly laminated, and may go at any moment. These 

 difficulties are very annoying, but I have determined to get to 

 the top this time, even if we have to carry our loads.' 



From this time on we had constant worries with these 

 wretched runners. On the 29th Ferrar's small sledge gave out, 

 and we had a long delay to get it into working order again. 

 Notwithstanding this we got within a few hundred yards of the 

 Knob Head Moraine before we called a halt for the night. 

 On the broad surface of this glacier there were few places in 

 which we could camp for want of snow to secure our tents ; for 

 this reason we generally kept moderately close to the long lines 

 of morainic boulders, as under the largest of these there was 

 usually sufficient snow for our purpose. In a few places 

 elsewhere we found a thin sheet or isolated patches, but this 

 was not common. 



