362 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



and somehow, when we appear to have reached a cul-de- 

 sac, we find it an open road." * However, we all found 

 the trouble on our way back. 



" On our right we have now a pretty good view of 

 the Adam, Marshall and Wild Mountains, and their 

 very curious horizontal stratification. Wright has found, 

 amongst bits of wind-blown debris, an undoubted bit of 

 sandstone and a bit of black basalt. We must get to know 

 more of the geology before leaving the glacier finally." 2 



December 19, +7 . Total height 5800 feet. "Things 

 are certainly looking up, seeing that we have risen 11 00 

 feet, and marched 17 to 18 statute miles during the 

 day, whereas Shackleton's last march was 13 statute. It 

 was still thick when we turned out at 5.45, but it soon 

 cleared with a fresh southerly wind, and we could see 

 Buckley Island and the land at the head of the glacier just 

 rising. We started late for Birdie wanted to get our sledge- 

 meter dished up: it has been quite a job to-day getting it 

 on, but it rode well this afternoon. We started over the 

 same crevassed stuff, but soon got on to blue ice, and for 

 two hours had a most pleasant pull, and then up a steepish 

 rise sometimes on blue ice and sometimes on snow. After 

 the pleasantest morning we have had, we completed 8^ 

 miles. 



"Angles and observations were taken at lunch, and 

 quite a lot of work was done. There is a general getting 

 squared up with gear, for we know that those going on 

 will not have many more days of warm temperatures. At 

 one time to-day I think Scott meant trying the right hand 

 of the island or nunatak, but as we rose this was ob- 

 viously impossible, for there is a huge mass of pressure 

 coming down there. From here the Dominion Range also 

 looks as if it were a nunatak. Some of these mountains, 

 which don't look very big, are huge (since the six thousand 

 feet which we have risen have to be added on to them), 

 and many of them are very grand indeed. The Mill 

 Glacier is a vast thing, with big pressure across it. There 

 also seems to be a big series of ice-falls between Buckley 



1 Bowers. 2 Scott's Last Expedition, vol. i. p. 509. 



