DIFFICULT TRAVELLING 



and it was indeed fortunate for us that we did not meet 

 with any bad weather while we were marching up the 

 glacier. Had a blizzard come on while we were asleep, 

 it would have scattered our goods far and wide, and 

 we would have been faced with a very serious position. 

 All the time that we were climbing the glacier we had 

 a northerly wind behind us, although the direction 

 of the sastrugi showed clearly that the prevailing wind 

 was from the south; when we were coming back later 

 in the season the wind was behind us all the time. 

 We encountered a strong wind on the outward journey 

 when near the top of the glacier, and as the ice slopes 

 were covered with snow it was difficult to pull the 

 sledges up them. When we reached the same slopes 

 on the way back, the summer sun had cleared the snow 

 from them, leaving clear ice, and we simply ghssaded 

 down all but the steepest slopes, although one of the 

 sledge runners was very badly torn. We had to travel 

 carefully on the steep slopes, for if we had let the sledge 

 get out of hand it would have run away altogether, 

 and would probably have been smashed up hundreds 

 of feet below. 



The Upper Glacier Depot was overhung by great 

 cliffs of rock, shattered by the frosts and storms of 

 countless centuries, and many fragments were poised 

 in such a fashion that scarcely more than a touch 

 seemed needed to bring them hurtling down. All 

 around us on the ice lay rocks that had recently fallen 

 from the heights, and we wondered whether some 

 boulder would come down upon us while we were in 

 camp. We had no choice of a camping-ground, as all 

 around was rough ice. The cliffs were composed largely 

 of weathered sandstone, and it was on the same moun- 

 tains, higher up the glacier, that the coal was found, 

 at a point where the slope was comparatively gentle; 



15 



