EFFECTS OF ALTITUDE AND COLD 



tea. They were, at this time, some 800 ft. below the 

 rim of the old crater and were feeling the effects of 

 the high altitude and the extreme cold. Below them 

 was a magnificent panorama of clouds, coast and Barrier 

 snow, but they could not afford to spend much time 

 admiring it. After a hasty meal they tackled the 

 ascent again. When they were a little distance from 

 the top of the rim of the main crater, Mackay elected 

 to work his way alone with his ice-axe up a long and 

 very steep neve slope instead of following the less 

 difficult and safer route by the rocks where the rest 

 of the party were proceeding. He passed out of sight, 

 and then the others heard him call out that he was 

 getting weak and did not think he could carry on much 

 longer. They made haste to the top of the ridge, and 

 Marshall and the Professor dropped to the point where 

 he would be likely to be. Happily, they found him 

 coming toward them, and Marshall took his load, for he 

 looked very done up. It appeared that Mackay had 

 found the work of cutting steps with his heavy load 

 more difficult than he had anticipated, and he only 

 just managed to reach safety when he fell and fainted. 

 No doubt this was due, in part, to mountain sickness, 

 which, under the severe conditions and at the high 

 altitude the party had attained, also affected Brockle- 

 hurst. 



Having found a camping-place, they dropped their 

 loads, and the members of the party were at leisure 

 to observe the nature of their surroundings. They 

 had imagined an even plain of neve or glacier ice filling 

 the extinct crater to the brim and sloping up gradually 

 to the active cone at its southern end, but instead of 

 this they found themselves on the very brink of a 

 precipice of black rock, forming the inner edge of the 

 old crater. This wall of dark lava was mostly vertical, 



179 



