EXPLORING THE GREAT CONTINENT 



it, but were foiled for some days by the chasms and 

 ridges, but made a successful traverse between Decem- 

 ber 6th and nth. They halted for a few days here 

 and killed seals and penguins to supplement their food, 

 for their further journey of two hundred miles to the 

 Magnetic Pole. On December 17th they made their 

 way inland, having a risky time with crevasses which 

 nearly engulfed the whole party. A difficult track over 

 the north side of the Larsen Glacier enabled them to 

 ascend to the Great Ice Plateau, which was reached by 

 a fairly smooth route on December 28th. By January 

 loth the Great Ice Plateau had gradually risen to seven 

 thousand feet. On the fifteenth they were so close 

 to the daily fluctuating 'Tole" that Mawson thought 

 it might swing beneath them ! However, they marched 

 some miles farther and on January i6th arrived at 

 72° 25' S. latitude and 155° 16' E., which Mawson 

 deduced to be the Magnetic Pole (see Figure 2). On 

 their return they had to make over sixteen miles a day 

 to be at the coast in time for the relief ship. Descend- 

 ing the Larsen Glacier they had a very difficult task 

 in crossing the weathered and crevassed ice near its 

 junction with the Great Ice Shelf, but on the third of 

 February they ended their splendid journey on the 

 coast, just north of the Drygalski Ice Tongue. It was 

 a dramatic finish that this exhausted party should have 

 been met by the ship on the very day they reached the 

 coast, for they would have had little chance of a safe 

 return to headquarters by their own efforts. 



Many other exciting incidents occurred on this ex- 

 pedition. Thus the Western Geological Party was car- 



51 



