192 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Nov. 



With these two men behind me our sledge seemed to 

 become a living thing, and the days of slow progress were 

 numbered. We took the rough and the smooth alike, working 

 patiently on through the long hours with scarce a word and 

 never a halt between meal and meal. Troubles and discom- 

 forts were many, and we could only guess at the progress we 

 made, but we knew that by sticking to our task we should 

 have our reward when our observations came to be worked 

 out on board the ship. 



We were now so far from the edge of the plateau that our 

 circumstances and conditions were such as must obtain over 

 the whole of this great continental area at this season of the 

 year. It is necessary, therefore, to give some description of 

 them. 



I used to read my aneroid with great regularity, and I find 

 that the readings vary from 2o'2 in. to 22*1 in., but both of 

 these limits were under exceptional atmc spheric conditions. 

 By far the greater number of readings lie between 21*1 and 

 2 1 "6 inches, and these differences were due to change of level 

 to some extent, but, as will be seen, they do not admit of any 

 considerable change in level. It was evident to us as we 

 travelled onward that there were undulations in the plain ; we 

 could sometimes see the shadow of a rise and sometimes a 

 marked depression, but these variations were so slight and so 

 confused that we could make little of them, until we recognised 

 a connection between them and the occurrence of the sastrugi. 

 We then came to see that the summits and eastern faces of 

 undulations were quite smooth with a very curious scaly con- 

 dition of surface, whilst the hollows and the western faces were 

 deeply furrowed with the wind. On our track, therefore, we 

 met with great differences of surface. For long stretches we 

 travelled over smooth glazed snow, and for others almost 

 equally long we had to thread our way amongst a confused 

 heap of sharp waves. I have rarely, if ever, seen higher or 

 more formidable sastrugi than we crossed on this plateau. 

 For instance, on November 24 I wrote : ' At first there were 

 knes of glazed surface leading to the W.S.W., but afterwards 



