THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



hanging cliffs, however, were not quite as serious as 

 those which we had left behind, and by making con- 

 siderable detours we managed to circumvent them. At 

 last we seemed to have got amongst an impassable 

 belt of high crevassed ice ridges with precipitous 

 chasms between. After a good deal of reconnoitring 

 ahead a clue out of the labyrinth was discovered 

 in the form of a series of high snow ridges which led 

 backwards and forwards, in and out, amongst the 

 high-pressure ridges, and eventually enabled us to land 

 our sledges in a broad crevassed valley on the glacier 

 surface. 



After the hoosh at the end of our day's sledging, 

 Mawson and I walked about two miles, looking out 

 for a track for the next morning. The outlook was by 

 no means encouraging, as the surface still bristled with 

 huge ice undulations as far as the eye could reach. 

 It was just as though a stormy sea had suddenly been 

 frozen solid, with the troughs between its large waves 

 here and there partly filled with snow, while the crests 

 of the waves were raised by hard ridges of drift snow, 

 terminating in overhanging cliffs, facing the north. It 

 was obvious, too, that the glacier ice over which we would 

 have to travel, was still very heavily crevassed. As 

 we returned, a mild blizzard sprang up from the 

 south-south-west, bringing low drift with it. The 

 blizzard cleared off in about an hour and a half, and 

 the sun came out strong and hot, and rapidly thawed the 

 snow on our tent and on the food-bags stored on our 

 sledges. 



The following day, December 8, we dug away the 

 drift snow piled by the blizzard against our 

 sledges, and were pleased to find that the day was 

 beautifully fine and sunny with a light breeze from 



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