382 WITH SCOTT : THE SILVER LINING 



were securely embalmed like the flies in amber, and so we 

 safely carried a thousand of these unknown insects back to 

 civilization. 



At noon on the 27th we arrived at the foot of the Flat 

 Iron again, and started our big task. Like most premeditated 

 ills, it was not so difficult as anticipated. First we had some 

 tea on a little gravelly ledge about a hundred feet up, and 

 then packed the gear for transport up the mile of angular 

 granite blocks which lay between us and the top of the Flat 

 Iron. Forde and Gran carried the sledge on their shoulders, 

 and, as may be imagined, had a most uncomfortable journey 

 with this " old man of the ice " to handicap their scramble. 

 Debenham and I carried food and gear, and in about a dozen 

 journeys everything was perched high up on the Flat Iron's 

 summit. Open water was visible from five hundred feet, so 

 that it was still about twenty-five miles away. Pennell had 

 not much chance of reaching the rendezvous unless the ice 

 went out at a mile a day. 



We left our snug gravel island next day, and knotted 

 ourselves well to the sledge. We were now to journey for 

 some days over the Mackay Glacier, and though we naturally 

 chose the smoothest and least disturbed ice for our route, yet 

 we had to pass near areas full of huge crevasses. I had less 

 anxiety than ever to fall into one, for I could not use my 

 right hand at all yet. However, the other three were almost 

 too prompt to pull me out, as I realized a week or two later. 



We zigzagged down on the snow plateau. This is about 

 ten miles wide, and seven miles from east to west. It is 

 bounded by the New Glacier crevasses on the south, and by 

 rock islands which we called Redcliff and Mount Suess on 

 the west, by the chaos of the Mackay Skauk on the north, 

 and by the Flat Iron and Cuff Cape Glaciers to the east, 

 where there is a 1000-feet drop into Granite Harbour. 



" The surface was covered with deep snow ; we don't 

 know what is beneath. There are many indications of east- 

 west depressions in the snow into which we fell occasionally, 

 but I am not sure if they were crevasses. The surface often 

 fell in with a widespread sigh, which was eerie but harmless. 



" To the south is a wonderful series of peaks about five 

 thousand feet high, forming a wall of giant cwms. Probably 

 they form the divide from the next great valley (of the 



