UNFAVORABLE CONDITIONS 



could be seen, and Observation Hill, astern, but before 

 us lay a dead white wall, with nothing, even in the 

 shape of a cloud, to guide our steering. Almost im- 

 mediately after we left we crossed a crevasse, and 

 before we had gone half a mile we found ourselves in 

 a maze of them, only detecting their presence by the 

 ponies breaking through the crust and saving them- 

 selves, or the man leading a pony putting his foot 

 through. The first one Marshall crossed with Grisi 

 was 6 ft. wide, and when I looked down, there was 

 nothing to be seen but a black yawning void. Just 

 after this, I halted Quan on the side of one, as I thought 

 in the uncertain light, but I found that we were stand- 

 ing on the crust in the centre, so I very gingerly un- 

 harnessed him from the sledge and got him across. 

 Then the sledge, with our three months' provisions, 

 was pulled out of danger. Following this, Adams 

 crossed another crevasse, and Chinaman got his fore- 

 foot into the hole at the side. I, following with Quan, 

 also got into difficulties, and so I decided that it was 

 too risky to proceed, and we camped between two large 

 crevasses. We picketed the ponies out and pitched 

 one tent, to wait till the light became better for we were 

 courting disaster by proceeding in that weather. Thus 

 eneded our day's march of under a mile, for about 1 p.m. 

 it commenced to snow, and the wind sprang up from 

 the south-west with drift. We pitched our second 

 tent and had lunch, consisting of a pot of tea, some 

 chocolate and two biscuits each. The temperature was 

 plus 12° Fahr. at noon. 



It blew a little in the afternoon, and I hope to find 

 it clear away this pall of dead white stratus that stops 

 us. The ponies were in splendid trim for pulling this 

 morning, but, alas! we had to stop. Grisi and Socks 



267 



