FIRST WESTERN EXPEDITION 151 



gulls had found the carcase of the Emperor, and our chance 

 of a variation of the menu had departed with the skuas. 



That evening we discussed literature. Seaman Evans had 

 read many popular works, and was far superior in this respect 

 to any of the other seamen with whom I had much to do. 

 He had read some of Kipling's poems, and " had no use for 

 them," nor did Dickens appeal to him. As was perhaps 

 natural, he preferred books with more "plot" in them ; espe- 

 cially did he delight in the works of the French writer whose 

 name he anglicized as Dum — ass ! 



Our sledging library was quite extensive, for each of us 

 had devoted a pound of our personal allowance to books. I 

 will give the catalogue, if only as a caution to later explorers. 

 Debenham took my Browning and the " Autocrat " ; Evans 

 had a William le Queux and the Red Magazine ; Wright had 

 two mathematical books, both in German ; I took Debenham's 

 Tennyson and three small German books. The Red Magazine, 

 the "Autocrat," and Browning were most often read ; Evans' 

 contribution being an easy winner. Somehow we didn't hanker 

 after German. 



On the nth Wright and Debenham carried out a very 

 important operation to determine the movement of the Ferrar 

 Glacier. They fixed stakes right across the glacier which were 

 aligned on two prominent peaks. x Some six months later 

 Captain Scott re-measured this line, and found that very con- 

 siderable movement, amounting to thirty feet, had taken place 

 during the winter. 



Meanwhile P.O. Evans and I prospected for a route up 

 the steep snow slope of Descent Pass. Evans had been with 

 Armitage when he used this route in 1903. We found the 

 conditions very different. Soon we were sinking nearly two 

 feet at every step in soft snow, through which I knew it 

 would be almost impossible to drag the sledges. The slope 

 soon increased to n°, so that we found some difficulty in 

 progressing even unencumbered. There I first made the 

 acquaintance of the " Barrier Shudder." Every now and then 

 a shiver would shake the surface, and we could hear the eerie 

 wave of sound expanding like a ripple all around. Sometimes 

 one could see the whole snow surface sinking slightly, and at 

 first the effect was very unpleasant. 



We had been roped for two miles and were still ascending. 



