104 WITH SCOTT: THE SILVER LINING 



occur where the ice was in compression rather than in tension. 

 Here in the hollows the crevasses would tend to close up, and 

 we found them quite readily crossed. In the icy surface were 

 broad ribbons of snow, slightly depressed below the surface, 

 and curving grandly round the undulations of Erebus. These 

 looked solid enough, but an ice axe hardly met with any 

 resistance in the snow, and on sweeping it away one could see 

 a chasm extending indefinitely down. Higher up the slope 

 the snow formed bridges, but here in narrower crevasses it was 

 only of value in veiling the depth. However, it was a mere 

 question of jumping ; the leader gathering in the rope and 

 taking a good leap while the follower drove his ice pick into 

 the surface and held on firmly. If there had been any great 

 danger involved, two men would, of course, have been in- 

 sufficient, but we progressed in this fashion for a mile, then 

 crossed another mile of softish snow without crevasses, and 

 reached the Barne ridge, with rocks running from the coast 

 halfway up to the crater of Erebus. Here to our surprise we 

 saw nothing but kenyte hummocks and debris lying between 

 us and Cape Royds. It would not have been human to have 

 resisted this opportunity of visiting the headquarters of the 1 907 

 expedition. After resting a little among the huge mounds of 

 kenyte boulders — actually bearing small tufts of red and green 

 lichens — we tramped quickly across alternating patches of rock 

 and snow, past small ice-covered lakes, and soon reached 

 Back-door Bay. Here quite a large stream — for Antarctica — 

 was falling over an ice cliff, and we reached the first sign of 

 another settlement. This was a bamboo pole planted in a 

 cairn. Then we scrambled over slopes of kenyte gravel, 

 skirting the rotten ice which filled the outer part of Back-door 

 Bay. The narrow gulf at the north-east end of the bay still 

 contained firm ice, and we crossed this without attracting any 

 remark from a colony of twenty seals, and so reached Cape 

 Royds. Here signs of occupation were very evident, though 

 the hut was some distance away on the further (northern) 

 slope of the hill. A sledge with cases of tinned meat, a ladder, 

 and the tubes of the hand-boring plant, had been left close to 

 the water of Back-door Bay. We carried off a tin of beef in 

 case the hut contained nothing more attractive. 



Following some old sledge tracks we topped a rise, and 

 were right on the hut. 



