THE GRANITE HARBOUR EXPEDITION 351 



better, for one never seemed to have enough to taste in a 

 spoonful of raisins ! The butter was fine ! Sometimes I 

 would save some of the precious lumps of sugar ; and an 

 original sweetmeat resulted if one bit alternately into the 

 frozen butter and the sugar ! The chocolate we usually 

 nibbled at the four-o'clock halt ; while any biscuit left over 

 would be dumped into the hold-all pocket on one's jersey and 

 eaten at the same time. Debenham never could eat all his 

 biscuit at the meals, and somehow often had a bit to spare 

 which we couldn't resist. 



I used to save some of my evening butter in my pot for 

 the morning. Occasionally hoosh would be poured on it by 

 a hasty cook, and then my biscuit had to be eaten dry ; a 

 small matter, for the hoosh was the richer. Once or twice on 

 our trek we came to pools of water, and then Forde would 

 polish up the pots ; but thereafter queer mixtures would 

 gradually swamp the true flavours of our foods. The 

 beverage would be "co-tea," or " tea-co," according to circum- 

 stances, while suspicions of many of our past menus would 

 persist until another scouring day arrived. 



There were some compensations, however, in Polar 

 sledging. One could obtain water by merely digging a cup 

 into the floor, and the absence of flies and of rain were 

 blessings indeed. However, the air was not quite aseptic. 

 Many of the carcases of sheep went bad, and one of our party 

 was very sick from the butter before we finished our journey. 



The snow ceased about 4 p.m., and Gran and I walked to 

 the root of the ice tongue to examine it. It was a mile and 

 a half long and was fed by a well-defined overflow from the 

 Wilson Piedmont, which had cut its way through granite 

 clifFs some 200 feet high. There were several " chimneys " 

 offering tracks up the clifFs. One had a rough rock figure 

 at its base, and led Gran to remark, "This is an ome." I 

 realized he meant " good omen," and accordingly we tackled 

 the chimney indicated. Lichen and mosses welcomed us on 

 the flat summit, where some hundred yards of granite-strewn 

 platform marked where the piedmont had retreated from the 

 edge. We investigated the gully between the tongue and 

 the clifFs, here almost vertical. As usual there was no sign 

 of grooves or striation, though the ice was much disturbed at 

 the base of the cliff, and we had to cross many small crevasses. 



