310 THE VOYAGE OF THE 'DISCOVERY' [Sept. 



and such is its geographical situation that the probability is 

 there are few places in the Antarctic Regions where the ice 

 will be found much pressed up; while in the North hum- 

 mocks have been the bane of many a sledge journey. In 

 regard to sastrugi, it is probable that such a wind-swept area 

 as the Antarctic outvies the more placid North ; indeed, I 

 doubt whether snow-waves have ever been seen before of such 

 giant size as some which we observed abreast of our windiest 

 gullies or on the high plateau of Victoria Land. In regard 

 to the disturbances of the vast land ice-sheets it is difficult to 

 institute any comparison with the North, but these formed a 

 sufficiently solid obstruction to many of our sledging efforts. 



A general comparison of the sledging conditions met with 

 in the North and in the South cannot be said, therefore, to 

 be in favour of the latter, and it must be conceded that the 

 Antarctic sledge-traveller journeys under considerable relative 

 disadvantages : he has to meet severer climatic conditions, he 

 has to pull his sledges over heavier surfaces, and he is not 

 likely to encounter fewer obstacles in his path. Hence it is 

 probable that the distances recorded by the Northern travellers 

 will never be exceeded in the South. 



I do not wish it to be inferred from what I have written 

 that the sledge-traveller does or should go forth in order to 

 make marching records ; but whatever his objectives may be, 

 it is obvious that they are best achieved by speed on. the 

 march ; and hence where conditions are equal, speed and 

 the distance travelled are a direct gauge of the efficiency of 

 sledging preparations and of the spirit of those who undertake 

 this arduous service. 



From the summary, necessarily brief, of the history of the 

 development of sledge-travelling which I have given, and the 

 equally brief account of the physical conditions under which 

 it is conducted, the reader will see that the object of the 

 traveller is to journey as far as possible beyond the limit to 

 which his ship can attain, and some idea of the problems that 

 are encountered in pursuit of this object will have been con- 

 veyed. The weight which can be dragged by a party is limited 



