RIDGES AND CREVASSES 



at the tops there would be a great crevasse, from which 

 would radiate smaller crevasses fringed with crystals 

 and showing ghastly depths below. We would creep 

 forward to see what lay on the other side, and perhaps 

 would find a fall of fifty feet, with a grade of about 

 1 in 3. Many times we risked our sledge on very 

 severe slopes, allowing it to glissade down, but other 

 times the danger of a smash was too great, and we had 

 to lower the sledge slowly and carefully with the rope. 

 The ice was safe enough to walk upon at this time 

 except at the ridges, where the crevasses were severe, 

 for the smaller crevasses in the hollows and slopes could 

 be passed without difiiculty. 



The ice falls delayed us a good deal, and then we got 

 into soft snow, over which the sledge dragged heavily. 

 We thought that we were finally on the plateau level, 

 but within a few days we came to fresh ridges and 

 waves of pressure ice. The ice between the waves was 

 very rotten, and many times we fell through when we 

 put our weight on it. We fastened the Alpine rope to 

 the sledge harness, and the first man pulled at a distance 

 of about eighteen feet from the sledge, while the whole 

 party was so scattered that no two men could fall into 

 a crevasse together. We got on to better ground by 

 steering to the westward, but this step was rather 

 dangerous, for by taking this course we travelled 

 parallel with the crevasses and were not able to meet them 

 at right angles. Many times we nearly lost the 

 sledge and ourselves when the ice started to break away 

 into an unseen crevasse running parallel with our course. 

 We felt very grateful to Providence that the weather 

 remained clear, for we could not have moved a yard over 

 this rotten ice in thick weather without courting disaster. 

 I do not know whether the good weather we experienced 

 in that neighbourhood was normal. We generally 



Vol. II.-2 17 



