AN ICE BRIDGE 



at least thirty to forty feet in thickness. Close to our 

 final camping-ground for the day was a long shallow 

 valley or barranca; it was from one hundred and twenty 

 to one hundred and thirty yards in width. The near side 

 was steep, though not too steep for us to have let our 

 sledge down; but the far side was precipitous, being 

 bounded by an overhanging cliff from twenty to thirty 

 feet high. The floor of this valley was deeply and 

 heavily crevassed. This sunken valley, therefore, 

 formed a serious obstacle to our advance. 



While Mackay was preparing the hoosh Mawson 

 travelled to the right, and I to the left along this valley 

 seeking for a possible crossing place. At last Mawson 

 found a narrow spot where there had been an ice bridge 

 over the valley, but this had become cracked through 

 at the centre. It was nevertheless strong enough 

 to bear our sledge. Near this ice bridge Mawson 

 stated that he noticed muddy material containing 

 what appeared to be foraminifera, squeezed up from 

 below. The day had been calm and clear, and we 

 were able to get detailed sketches of this part of the 

 coast range. 



The following day we made for the ice bridge with 

 our sledge, and found that the crack crossing it had 

 opened to a width of eighteen inches during the 

 night. The far side had become too, somewhat higher 

 than the near side. We had little difficulty in getting 

 the sledge over, and after crossing several other cracks 

 in the ice and neve without mishap reached once more 

 a fairly level surface. A light plateau wind was now 

 blowing from off the Mount Nansen glacier. The hard 

 snow surface was furrowed by two very definite sets of 

 sastrugi, one set coming from a south-westerly direction, 

 and apparently caused by blizzard wind, the other 

 from nearly north-west. The latter were evidently 



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