THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



west. The weather is fine and clear, and the temperature 

 plus 17° Fahr. 



December 7. — Started at 8 a.m., Adams, Marshall 

 and self pulling one sledge. Wild leading Socks behind. 

 We travelled up and down slopes with very deep snow, 

 into which Socks sank up to his belly, and we plunged 

 in and out continuously, making it very trying work. 

 Passed several crevasses on our right hand and could 

 see more to the left. The light became bad at 1 p.m., 

 when we camped for lunch, and it was hard to see the 

 crevasses, as most were more or less snow covered. 

 After lunch the light was better, and as we marched 

 along we were congratulating ourselves upon it when 

 suddenly we heard a shout of " help " from Wild. 



We stopped at once and rushed to his assistance, 

 and saw the pony sledge with the forward end down 

 a crevasse and Wild reaching out from the side of the 

 gulf grasping the sledge. No sign of the pony. We 

 soon got up to Wild, and he scrambled out of the 

 dangerous position, but poor Socks had gone. Wild 

 had a miraculous escape. He was following up our 

 tracks, and we had passed over a crevasse which was 

 entirely covered with snow, but the weight of the pony 

 broke through the snow crust and in a second all was 

 over. Wild says he just felt a sort of rushing wind, 

 the leading rope was snatched from his hand, and he 

 put out his arms and just caught the further edge of the 

 chasm. Fortunately for Wild and us, Socks' weight 

 snapped the swingle-tree of the sledge, so it was saved, 

 though the upper bearer is broken. We lay down on 

 our stomachs and looked over into the gulf, but no 

 sound or sign came to us; a black bottomless pit it 

 seemed to be. We hitched the pony sledge to ourselves 

 and started off again, now with a weight of 1000 lb. 

 for the four of us. Camped at 6.20 p.m., very tired, 



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