BRITISH ANTARCTIC EXPEDITION—SHACKLETON, 361 
We encountered difficulties at once, for the snow slopes, by means 
of which we gained the glacier surface, gave way to blue ice, with 
numberless cracks and crevasses, many of them razor-edged. Travel- 
ing on this surface in finesko was slow and painful work. On De- 
cember 5 Marshall and Adams, who were ahead looking for a route, 
reported that at a point close to the granite cliffs, a bird, brown in 
color, with a white line under each wing, had flown over their heads. 
They were sure it was not a skua gull, the only bird likely to have 
been attracted by the last dead pony. It was a curious incident to 
occur in latitude 83° 40’ S. We left the fourth depot close to the 
foot of the glacier, at the foot of a wonderful granite cliff, polished 
by the winds and snows of ages. On December 6 we took six hours 
to pass about 600 yards of severely crevassed ice, over which all our 
gear had to be relayed, and on the following day we lost the last 
pony, which fell into a crevasse disguised, like so many others, by a 
treacherous snow lid. Wild was leading the pony with one sledge, 
while Adams, Marshall, and myself went on ahead with the other 
sledge and pioneered a practical path. We had passed over a snow- 
covered crevasse without. noticing it, but the greater weight of the 
pony broke through the ld, and the animal dropped through, prob- 
ably to a depth of several hundred feet. Happily, the swingle- 
tree snapped with a sudden strain, and Wild and the sledge were 
saved. This accident left us with two sledges and a weight of about 
250 pounds per man to haul. Our altitude at this time was about 
1,700 feet above sea level. 
During the days that followed we made steady progress up the 
glacier, experiencing constant difficulty with the crevasses. We hauled 
well ahead of the sledges, so that when one of us dropped through a 
snow lid the harness would support him until he could be hauled up 
again. We had many painful falls as a result of having no footgear 
suitable for the ice climbing, and any future travelers would do well 
to take boots with spikes. A special form would have to be devised, 
on account of the low temperature rendering impracticable the use of 
ordinary mountaineering boots. New land appeared day after day, 
and we were able to make small geological collections and to take 
some photographs. The rocks were sedimentary, the lines of stratifi- 
cation often showing clearly on the mountain sides, and we made two 
geological discoveries of the first importance. In latitude 85° S., 
Wild, who had climbed the slope of a mountain in order to look 
rhapel found coal, six seams ranging from 4 inches to 7 or 8 feet in 
thickness, with sandstone intervening. Close to this point I found a 
piece of sandstone showing an impression, and microscopic investiga- 
tion has shown that this was fossil coniferous wood. 
The glacier proved to be about 130 miles in length, rising to an alti- 
tude of over 9,000 feet. Christmas Day, 1908, found us in latitude 
