CHAPTER XXXIV. 



THE GEEAT EXPEDITION. 



TUESDAY, March 20, was the great day of departure, and after 

 breakfasting at six o'clock, we were ready to start about eight. The 

 weather was beautiful, and we drove out through the sound, east 

 of Skreia, at a smart pace, taking, when south of it, a line direct 

 for South Cape. We never now drove our old way west of Skreia, 

 for, although the distance was about the same, the ice and going 

 generally were better east of it. 



Out in Jones Sound a strongish breeze from the south sprang 

 up, and across Sydkapfjord the going, which had been very good 

 before, became rather loose. Under the high cliffs of South Cape, 

 however, the wind had less effect, as it blew directly on to the 

 mountain side, and there, too, we came on to the same good 

 slippery ice that Fosheim and I had had the last time we were 

 there. 



We got on a tremendous pace westwards. At South Cape and 

 some of the other headlands were enormous masses of ice which 

 had been pressed up during the winter ; in some places many times 

 the height of a man. It appeared as if the ice had been 

 cracked and broken up at some time during the course of 

 the winter, mostly into small pieces, and that all these 

 blocks and bits and rubble had subsequently been pressed 

 together between the ridges, and piled one above the other 

 as far south in the sound as we could see from the highest 

 hummock thereabouts. At the time that this violent pressure 

 took place the ice must have been at least two feet thick. Just 

 under the headlands, where we had to make our way through all 

 this uneven ice, it was very hard work, but on the whole we had 



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