KEEPING THEIR FEET 



a halt and laying off the course again with the compass, 

 a precaution that is very necessary, for at times the 

 sastrugi alter in direction. 



The sledgers, at this particular juncture, had much 

 trouble in keeping their feet, and the usual equanimity 

 of some of the men was disturbed, their remarks upon 

 the subject of sastrugi being audible above the soft 

 pad of the finnesko, the scrunch of the ski-boots, and 

 the gentle sawing sound of the sledge-runners on the 

 soft snow. About 6 p.m. the party camped at a small 

 nunatak of black rock, about 2750 ft. above sea- 

 level and a distance of seven miles from winter quarters. 

 After a good hot dinner they turned into their sleeping- 

 bags in the tents and were soon sound asleep. The 

 following morning, when the men got up for break- 

 fast, the temperature was 10° below zero Fahr., whilst 

 at our winter quarters at the same time it was zero. 

 They found, on starting, that the gradient was becom- 

 ing much steeper, being 1 in 5, and sastrugi, running 

 obliquely to their course, caused the sledge to capsize 

 frequently. The temperature was 8° below zero 

 Fahr., but the pulling was heavy work and kept the 

 travellers warm. They camped that night, March 6, 

 at an altitude of 5630 ft., having travelled only three 

 miles during the whole day, but they had ascended 

 over 2800 ft. above their previous camp. The tempera- 

 ture that night was 28° below zero Fahr. The second 

 camp was in a line With the oldest crater of Erebus, 

 and from the nature of the volcanic fragments lying 

 around, the Professor was of the opinion that Erebus 

 had been producing a little lava within its crater quite 

 recently. 



On the following morning Adams decided that the 

 supporting-party should make the attempt with the 

 forward-party to reach the summit. I had left the 



175 



