ON THE BOOMERANG GLACIER 79 



the slope, Priestley very wisely decided to return. The icefalls 

 we see from our present camp apparently connect with the ridge. 

 It was worth going on to see, however, so we got under weigh 

 and marched till 7 P.M., when we camped at the foot of the first 

 ice falls on snow, the weather having come over very thick in the 

 afternoon. 



January 15. Still and very thick when we turned out at 

 6 A.M., so there was nothing for it but to turn in again after 

 breakfast. The Antarctic teaches one patience if nothing else. 



We are fairly sheltered, but can hear the wind roaring in 

 the crags on the side of the glacier, and the snow and drift are 

 so thick that we can only see a few yards. Occasionally in the 

 lulls we can see the blue icefalls looming up through the drift, 

 and then everything shuts down again. 



The conditions remained the same until breakfast on January 

 19, when it began to clear from the southward. We started 

 away after breakfast with the surface awful, and the snow so 

 deep I doubt if we should have got the sledges along at all 

 if we had not had ski, which enabled us to break a trail. As 

 soon as it was clear to the northward, Priestley and I climbed 

 the slopes on our left on ski, leaving the remainder halted at 

 the bottom. The view from the ridge was not promising. The 

 icefalls reached right up to the ridge, a mass of seracs and cre- 

 vasses as far as we could see, and I decided to return and try 

 the Boomerang Glacier, which lay a few miles south of us. The 

 sun now came out, and in the deep sticky surface it took all six 

 of us to pull one sledge. We had to relay all the way, and it 

 was six o'clock before we reached the N. lateral moraine of the 

 Boomerang Glacier, where we camped. 



January 20. After breakfast we divided into two parties. 

 I, taking Levick and Dickason, climbed the mountain on the N. 

 side of the glacier. Priestley, taking Abbott and Browning, went 

 up the glacier on the moraine, where Priestley wanted to collect. 



At the first possible place my party left the glacier, and, 

 after about an hour''s climb, came out on a snow field, where 

 we roped up and ploughed through deep snow lying over ice, 

 along the foot of a steep slope, which we attempted to climb by 

 cutting steps in order to reach a rocky spur several hundred feet 

 above us. Half-way up, however, we had to retrace our steps, 



