A DANGEROUS SITUATION 



placing great blocks of volcanic rocks on it. A party 

 remained below on the ice-foot to shift and hook on the 

 cases, whilst another party on top, fifty feet above, 

 hauled away when the word was given from below, and 

 on reaching the top of the cliff, the cases were hauled in 

 by means of a guy rope. The men were hauling on the 

 thin rope of the tackle from eight o'clock in the morning 

 till one o'clock the following morning with barely a spell 

 for a bit to eat. 



We now had to find another and safer place on which 

 to land the rest of the coal and stores. Further round 

 the bay from where the ship was lying was a smaller 

 bight where a gentle slope led on to bare rocks, and Back 

 Door Bay, as we named this place, became our new 

 depot. The ponies were led down the hill, and from Back 

 Door Bay to the ship. This was a still longer journey 

 than from Derrick Point, but there was no help for it, 

 and we started landing the coal, after laying a tarpaulin 

 on the rocks to keep the coal from becoming mixed with 

 the earth. By this time there were several ugly looking 

 cracks in the bay ice, and these kept opening and closing, 

 having a play of seven or eight inches between the floes. 

 We improvised bridges out of the bottom and sides of the 

 motor-car case, so that the ponies could cross the cracks, 

 and by eleven o'clock were well under way with the work. 

 Mackay had just taken ashore a load with a pony, Army- 

 tage was about to hook on another pony to a loaded 

 sledge at the ship, and a third pony was standing tied to 

 our stern anchor rope waiting its turn for sledging, 

 when suddenly, without the slightest warning, the greater 

 part of the bay ice opened out into floes, and the whole 

 mass that had opened started to drift slowly out to sea. 

 The ponies on the ice were now in a perilous position. 

 The sailors rushed to loosen the one tied to the stern rope, 

 and got it over the first crack, and Armytage also got 



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