THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



returned they informed me that there was more cracked-up 

 b]ue ice ahead, and that the main pressure of the 

 glacier came in very close to the pillar of granite that 

 stood before us, but that beyond that there appeared 

 to be a snow slope and good going. The most remark- 

 able thing they reported was that as they were walking 

 along a bird, brown in colour with a white line under 

 each wing, flew just over their heads and disappeared 

 to the south. It is, indeed, strange to hear of such an 

 incident in latitude 83° 40' South. They were sure 

 it was not a skua gull, which is the only bird I could 

 think of that would venture down here, and the gull 

 might have been attracted by the last dead pony, for 

 when in latitude 80° 30' South, on my last southern 

 trip, a skua gull arrived shortly after we had killed a 

 dog. 



After lunch we started again, and by dint of great 

 exertions managed, at 6 p.m., to camp after getting 

 both sledges and then the pony over another couple 

 of miles of crevassed blue ice. We then went on and 

 had a look ahead, and saw that we are going to have 

 a tough time to-morrow to get along at all. I can see 

 that it will, at least, mean relaying three or four times 

 across nearly half a mile of terribly crevassed ice, 

 covered in places with treacherous snow, and razor- 

 edged in other places, all of it sloping down towards 

 the rock debris strewn shore on the cliff side. We are 

 camped under a wonderful pillar of granite that has 

 been rounded by the winds into a perfectly symmetrical 

 shape, and is banded by lines of gneiss. There is just 

 one little patch of snow for our tents, and even that 

 bridges some crevasses. Providence will look over 

 as to-night, for we can do nothing more. One feels 

 that at any moment some great piece of rock may come 

 hurtling down, for all round us are pieces of granite, 



308 



