THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



December 26. — Got away at 7 a.m. sharp, after 

 dumping a lot of gear. We marched steadily all day 

 except for lunch, and we have done 14 miles 480 yards 

 on an uphill march, with soft snow at times and a bad 

 wind. Ridge after ridge we met, and though the 

 surface is better and harder in places, we feel very 

 tired at the end of ten hours' pulling. Our height 

 to-night is 9590 ft. above sea-level according to the 

 hypsometer. The ridges we meet with are almost similar 

 in appearance. We see the sun shining on them in the 

 distance, and then the rise begins very gradually. The 

 snow gets soft, and the weight of the sledge becomes 

 more marked. As we near the top the soft snow gives 

 place to a hard surface, and on the summit of the ridge 

 we find small crevasses. Every time we reach the top 

 of a ridge we say to ourselves: "Perhaps this is the 

 last," but it never is the last; always there appears 

 away ahead of us another ridge. I do not think 

 that the land lies very far below the ice-sheet, for the 

 crevasses on the summits of the ridges suggest that the 

 sheet is moving over land at no great depth. It would 

 seem that the descent towards the glacier proper from 

 the plateau is by a series of terraces. We lost sight 

 of the land to-day, having left it all behind us, and now 

 we have the waste of snow all around. Two more days 

 and our maize will be finished. Then our hooshes will 

 be more woefully thin than ever. This shortness of 

 food is unpleasant, but if we allow ourselves what, 

 under ordinary circumstances, would be a reasonable 

 amount, we would have to abandon all idea of getting 

 far south. 



December 27. — If a great snow plain, rising every 

 7 miles in a steep ridge, can be called a plateau, then 

 we are on it at last, with an altitude above the sea of 

 9820 ft. We started at 7 a.m. and marched till noon, 



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