i 9 o2] PUSHING SOUTHWARD 39 



fact that each mile is an advance, and has not to be covered 

 three times, is an inexpressible relief. 



• We are gradually passing from the hungry to the ravenous ; 

 we cannot drag our thoughts from food, and we talk of little 

 else. The worst times are the later hours of the march and 

 the nights ; on the march one sometimes gets almost a sickly 

 feeling from want of food, and the others declare they have an 

 actual gnawing sensation. At night one wakes with the most 

 distressing feeling of emptiness, and then to reflect that there 

 are probably four or five hours more before breakfast is posi- 

 tively dreadful. We have all proved the efficacy of hauling our 

 belts quite tight before we go to sleep, and I have a theory 

 that I am saved some of the worst pangs by my pipe. The 

 others are non-smokers, and, although they do not own it, I 

 often catch a wistful glance directed at my comforting friend ; 

 but, alas ! two pipes a day do not go far, even on such a 

 journey as ours.' 



1 December 19. — We are now about ten miles from the land, 

 but even at this distance the foothills cut off our view of the 

 higher mountains behind, save to the north and south. 

 Abreast of us the sky-line is not more than three or four 

 thousand feet high, though we know there are loftier peaks 

 behind. The lower country which we see strongly resembles 

 the coastal land far to the north ; it is a fine scene of a lofty 

 snow-cap, whose smooth rounded outline is broken by the 

 sharper bared peaks, or by the steep disturbing fall of some 

 valley. Here and there local glaciers descend to barrier level ; 

 the coastline itself winds greatly, forming numerous headlands 

 and bays ; we are skirting these and keeping our direct course, 

 a little to the east of south. The coast is fringed with white 

 snow-slopes, glaciers, and broken ice-cascades; but in many 

 places black rocky headlands and precipitous uncovered cliffs 

 serve more clearly to mark its windings. Perhaps one of the 

 most impressive facts is that we see all this above a perfectly 

 level horizon line. Everywhere apparently there is as sharp 

 and definite a line between the land and the level surface of 

 the barrier as exists on an ordinary coastline between land and 



