PHOTOGRAPHY IN THE FAR NORTH 



slip and a fall. As I could not carry an alpenstock, I 

 had to be extremely careful on account of my camera and 

 plates. But in spite of my precautions, I came near losing 

 all of them, and myself as well. 



The smooth sides of this par- 

 ticular glacier had a descent of 

 about three hundred feet, at an 

 angle of nearly forty-five degrees, 

 with a running brook two feet deep 

 at the bottom. Rocks and moraine 

 debris formed slight projections 

 where they had lodged on the ice. 

 Upon these we often stepped to get 

 a better foothold, but not always 

 with good results. Jumping over 

 a narrow crevasse about two feet 

 wide, I tried to catch a foothold on 

 one of these projections, but it was 

 only a thin covering of earth with 

 slippery ice below. 



The impetus of my jump gave 

 me a good start and nothing could 

 stop me from sliding down three 

 hundred feet, with a prospective 

 ice-water bath at the bottom. With 

 photographic plates on my back, 

 tripod in one hand and camera in 

 the other, there was nothing to do 

 but to slide down on the seat of my unmentionables. Rag- 

 ged and sharp pointed pieces of ice and stone soon reduced 

 my pantaloons to shreds. 



Xearer and nearer I came to the water. I closed my 

 eyes, and with a sudden jerk my feet caught securely 

 against a projecting piece of ice on the brink of the stream. 

 The revulsion of feeling was so sudden that I lay still for 

 several minutes; then I crept along the edge to a spot where 

 moraine deposits of large rocks allowed me to jump from 

 one to another. Crossing to the other side and getting 

 my photographic stuff together, I made my way to our 

 landing place and put everything into the boat. There I 

 found a piece of string to tie up the parts of my torn 

 garments which had suffered most. 

 239 



GETTING BREAKFAST 



