THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



tent-pole became drawn out into sharp, saw-like teeth, 

 and these started cutting through the canvas. All 

 through this day, consequently, we had to be con- 

 tinually getting out of the sleeping-bag and running our 

 hands down the tent-poles so as to rub off the ice teeth. 



The bhzzard continued till midnight of December 

 15-16, when its force markedly decreased. We break- 

 fasted accordingly just after midnight. I dug out the 

 sledge from the snow which had drifted over it, and 

 Mackay cached some seal meat in an adjoining ice 

 mouth. At last, about 7 a.m., we made a start and were 

 delighted to find that, chiefly as the result of the three 

 days' rest in camp, we were able to pull our sledge — 

 weighing about 670 lb. — ^with comparative ease. The 

 snow, though soft, had become crusted over the sur- 

 face through the thaw brought on by the blizzard, 

 followed by freezing during the succeeding cold night. 

 The sledging was certainly heavy, but not nearly so 

 distressing as that which we had recently experienced 

 in crossing the Drygalski Glacier. The " tablecloth was 

 being laid " on the top of Mount Nansen in the form of 

 a remarkable flattish thin white fleecy cloud. It 

 looked as though a high-level blizzard was blowing 

 over the summit. We steered towards the great black 

 nunatak midway between Mount Nansen and Mount 

 Larsen, as Mawson and Mackay both considered that 

 in this direction lay our chief hope of finding a prac- 

 tical route to the high plateau. 



On December 17 we had a very interesting day. 

 The sledging was rather heavy, being chiefly over soft 

 snow and pie-crust snow. It was difficult to decide 

 sometimes whether we were on fresh-water ice or on sea 

 ice. Here and there we crossed ice ridges, evidently 

 pressure ridges of some kind. These would be traversed 

 by crevasses which showed the ice in such places to be 



152 



