I9H] CHANCES OF A SNOW BRIDGE 127 



snow bridge, and it seems to me that the chance of finding some 

 obstruction or some saving fault in the crevasse is a good one, 

 but I am far from thinking that such a chance can be relied 

 upon, and it would be an awful situation to fall beyond the 

 limits of the Alpine rope. 



We went on after lunch, and very soon got into soft snow 

 and regular surface where crevasses are most unlikely to occur. 

 We have pushed on with difficulty, for the dogs are badly cooked 

 and the surface tries them. We are all pretty done, but luckily 

 the weather favours us. A sharp storm from the south has 

 been succeeded by ideal sunshine which is flooding the tent as 

 I write. It is the calmest, warmest day we have had since we 

 started sledging. We are only about 12 miles from Safety 

 Camp, and I trust we shall push on without accident to-morrow, 

 but I am anxious about some of the dogs. We shall be lucky 

 indeed if all recover. 



My companions to-day were excellent; Wilson and Cherry- 

 Garrard if anything the most intelligently and readily helpful. 



I begin to think that there is no avoiding the line of cracks 

 running from the Bluff to Cape Crozier, but my hope is that 

 the danger does not extend beyond a mile or two, and that the 

 cracks are narrower on the pony road to Corner Camp. If 

 eight ponies can cross without accident I do not think there can 

 be great danger. Certainly we must rigidly adhere to this 

 course on all future journeys. We must try and plot out the 

 danger line.* I begin to be a little anxious about the returning 

 ponies. 



I rather think the dogs are being underfed they have weak- 

 ened badly in the last few days more than such work ought to 

 entail. Now they are absolutely ravenous. 



Meares has very dry feet. Whilst we others perspire freely 

 and our skin remains pink and soft his gets horny and scaly. 

 He amused us greatly to-night by scraping them. The sound 

 suggested the whittling of a hard wood block and the action 

 was curiously like an attempt to shape the feet to fit the 

 finnesko ! 



* The party had made a short cut where in going out with the ponies they had made 

 an elbow, and so had passed within this 'danger line.' 



