PAINFUL FALLS 



tracks, and often I noticed the tracks lead us to the 

 edge of a crevasse which had been covered previously 

 and over which we had passed in ignorance of our danger 

 on the march southwards. When we got to the head 

 of the glacier we tried to take a short cut to the point 

 where we had left the Upper Glacier Depot, but we got 

 enmeshed in a maze of crevasses and pressure ridges 

 to the eastward, and so had to steer in a westerly direc- 

 tion again in order to get clear. The dangers that we 

 did know were preferable to those that we did not 

 know. On the way down the glacier we found all the 

 snow stripped away by the w^ind and sun for nearly 

 one hundred miles, and we travelled over slippery blue 

 ice, with innumerable cracks and sharp edges. We 

 had many painful falls during this part of the journey. 

 Then when about forty miles from the foot of the glacier 

 we got into deep soft snow again, over which rapid 

 progress was impossible. There had evidently been 

 a heavy snowfall in this area while we were further 

 south, and for days, while our food was running short, 

 we could see ahead of us the rocks under which the 

 depot had been placed. We toiled with painful slowness 

 towards the rocks, and as the reader has already learned, 

 we were without any food at all for the last thirty hours 

 of that march. We found the Barrier surface to be 

 very soft when we got off the Glacier, but after we 

 had passed Grisi Depot there was an improvement. 

 The surface remained fairly good until we reached the 

 winter quarters, and in view of our weakened condition 

 it was fortunate for us that it did so. 



In reviewing the experience gained on the southern 

 journey, I do not think that I could suggest any improve- 

 ment in equipment for any future expedition. The 

 Barrier surface evidently varies in a remarkable fashion, 

 and its condition cannot be anticipated with any degree 



19 



