PROSPECTS LOOK BRIGHTER 



It is a wonderful sight to look down over the glacier 

 from the great altitude we are at, and to see the moun- 

 tains stretching away east and west, some of them over 

 15,000 ft. in height. We are very hungry now, and 

 it seems as cold almost as the spring sledging. Our 

 beards are masses of ice all day long. Thank God we 

 are fit and well and have had no accident, which is a 

 mercy, seeing that we have covered over 130 miles of 

 crevassed ice. 



December 22. — As I write of to-day's events, I can 

 easily imagine I am on a spring sledging journey, for 

 the temperature is minus 5° Fahr. and a chilly south- 

 easterly wind is blowing and finds its way through the 

 walls of our tent, which are getting worn. All day long, 

 from 7 a.m., except for the hour when we stopped for 

 lunch, we have been relaying the sledges over the pressure 

 mounds and across crevasses. Our total distance to the 

 good for the whole day was only 4 miles southward, but 

 this evening our prospects look brighter, for we must 

 now have come to the end of the great glacier. It is 

 flattening out, and except for crevasses there will not 

 be much trouble in hauling the sledges to-morrow. One 

 sledge to-day, when coming down with a run over a 

 pressure ridge, turned a complete somersault, but noth- 

 ing was damaged, in spite of the total weight being over 

 400 lb. We are now dragging 400 lb. at a time up the 

 steep slopes and across the ridges, working with the 

 Alpine rope all day, and roping ourselves together when 

 we go back for the second sledge, for the ground is so 

 treacherous that many times during the day we are saved 

 only by the rope from falling into fathomless pits. 

 Wild describes the sensation of walking over this sur- 

 face, half ice and half snow, as like walking over 

 the glass roof of a station. The usual query when 

 one of us falls into a crevasse is: "Have you found 



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