i9l ON THE PIEDMONT 193 



sure the seaward slope would be safer. So it was, though Forde 

 went down a small one. We pulled along this up to a sort of 

 col about 8 miles from Cape Roberts, and here, as we were well 

 beyond the mouth of the Big Valley, we camped. 



' My only fear now was that bad weather might cover the 

 glacier with soft snow, for I felt that all the big crevasses would 

 be lidded and the little ones could hardly swallow the lot of us.' 



Next morning we made the harness traces longer, so that 

 only one man at a time need cross even a wide crevasse. We 

 had to traverse the mouth of another large valley glacier. Three 

 of these debouched on the piedmont glacier from the Western 

 Mountains, and the pressure from the northernmost (the Deben- 

 ham Glacier was responsible for the crevasses of March 5. 

 The second valley glacier was not so large, but we anticipated 

 trouble. We had a stiff pull uphill for three-quarters of a mile, 

 but some of the snow was so hard that the sledge runners made 

 no mark ! This was an ideal surface, for one's feet did not slip 

 on it, though occasionally the sledge skidded. We were about 

 700 feet above the sea here and entered a col just below a huge 

 snow hill. 



' Afterwards we were cutting around the hill aforesaid when 

 suddenly appeared many crevasses. So we deviated abruptly and 

 ascended the hill sharply. We encountered three, into one of 

 which I fell, but they were not very wide. The moral of this is, 

 Don't go for the break of a hill facing and near the sea, but 

 stick to humdrum grades if possible; if not, still don't go for 

 the break of a hill ! ' 



The somewhat frivolous tone of the above note is evidence 

 that it was written when we had traversed the worst of the pied- 

 mont. It was always the case ' down South.' One never got 

 photographs or ' instantaneous pen pictures ' of anything really 

 exciting. It was always a case of 'Get a move on, and get out 

 of this good and quick,' so that one's diary lost most where it 

 would have been most interesting. 



We were now behind Dunlop Island and about 1250 feet 

 up the piedmont. We were astonished to find that the floe had 

 all broken up to south'ard. Long curved cracks parallel to the 

 coast marked where pieces were continually floating off. We 

 congratulated ourselves on our safe position on the piedmont, 

 for we should have sledged into this without knowing it, had we 



VOL. 1113 



