366 WORST JOURNEY IN THE WORLD 



the blue ice. They were often too wide to jump though, 

 and the only thing was to plant your feet on the bridge and 

 try not to tread heavily. As a rule the centre of a bridged 

 crevasse is the safest place, the rotten places are at the 

 edges. We had to go over dozens by hopping right on to 

 the bridge and then over on to the ice. It is a bit of a jar 

 when it gives way under you, but the friendly harness is 

 made to trust one's life to. The Lord only knows how deep 

 these vast chasms go down, they seem to extend into blue 

 black nothingness thousands of feet below. 



"Before reaching the rise we had to go up and down 

 many steep slopes, and on the one side the sledges were 

 overrunning us, and on the other it fairly took the juice 

 out of you to reach the top. We saw the stratification on 

 the nunatak which Shackleton supposed to be coal : there 

 was also much sandstone and red granite. I should like 

 to have scratched round these rocks : we may get a chance 

 on our return journey. As we topped each rise we found 

 another one beyond it, and so on. 



"About noon some clouds settled in a fog round us, 

 and being fairly in a trough of crevasses we could not get 

 on. Fortunately we found a snow patch to pitch the tents 

 on, but even there were crevasses under us. However, we 

 enjoyed a hearty lunch, and I improved the shining hour 

 by preparing my rations for the Upper Glacier Depot. 



" At 3 p.m. it cleared, and Mount Darwin, a nunatak 

 to the S.W. of the others, could be seen. This we made 

 for, and some two miles on exchanged blue ice for the new 

 snow which was much harder pulling. Scott was fairly 

 wound up, and he went on and on. Every rise topped 

 seemed to fire him with a desire to top the next, and every 

 rise had another beyond and above it. We camped at 

 8 p.m., all pretty weary, having come up nearly 1500 feet, 

 and done over eleven miles in a S.W. direction. We were 

 south of Mount Darwin in 85 7' S., and our corrected 

 altitude proved to be 7000 feet above the Barrier. I 

 worked up till a very late hour getting the depot stores 

 ready, and also weighing out and arranging allowances 

 for the returning party, and arranging the stores and dis- 



