GLACIER SURFACES 



to climb in order to reach the glacier. Here at the 

 foot of the glacier there were pools of clear water round 

 the rocks, and we were able to drink as much as we 

 wanted, though the contact of the cold water with our 

 cracked lips was painful. 



The glacier itself presented every variety of surface, 

 from soft snow to cracked and riven blue ice, by-and-by 

 the only constant feature were the crevasses, from which 

 we were never free. Some were entirely covered with 

 a crust of soft snow, and we discovered them only when 

 one of us broke through, and hung by his harness from 

 the sledge. Others occurred in mazes of rotten ice, 

 and were even more difficult to negotiate than the 

 other sort. The least unpleasant of the crevasses 

 were those that were wide open and easily seen, with 

 firm ice on either side. If these crevasses were not 

 too wide, we would pull the sledges up to the side, 

 then jump over, and pull them after us. This was 

 more difficult than it sounds from the fact that the 

 ice gave only a very uncertain footing, but we always 

 had the harness as a safeguard in case of a fall. If 

 the crevasses were wide we had to make a detour. The 

 sledges, owing to their length, were not hable to slip 

 down a crevasse, and we felt fairly safe when we were 

 securely attached to them by the harness. When the 

 surface was so bad that relay work became necessary 

 we used to miss the support of a sledge on the back 

 journeys. We would advance one sledge half a mile 

 or a mile, put up a bamboo pole to mark the spot, and 

 then go back for the other. We were roped together 

 for the walk back to the second sledge, but even then 

 we felt a great deal less secure than when harnessed 

 to one of the long, heavy sledges. On some days we 

 had to travel up steep slopes of smooth ice, and often 

 it became necessary to cut steps with our ice-axes, 



13 



