342 



NEW LAND. 



blocks and hummocks of calf-ice. Then suddenly we were con- 

 fronted by a fissure so large that the only way of crossing it was 

 to fill it up by shovelling in cart-loads of snow. 



In other places the avalanches had carried with them boulders, 

 hummocks, and ridges into the sea. Where this had happened 

 the snow was as hard as ice, and we had again to take to the 

 picks and spades ; the dogs were unharnessed, and we ourselves 

 dragged the sledges across the critical spot. High above us 



CAMP AT HVALROSFJORD. SPRING 1900. 



hung beetling precipices and cliffs supporting enormous cornices, 

 which at any moment might fall and sweep with them in their 

 course rocks, men, dogs, and sledges into the whirling stream 

 below. 



Here and there a landslip had taken place, carrying away 

 the snow and leaving behind it only black debris, so that we had 

 to clear a way, stone by stone, before we could bring our sledges 

 across the place. This would have been bad enough in itself had 

 not the weather made things ten times worse. The wind steadily 

 increased, and between two and three o'clock it had risen to a 



