DANGEROUS TRAVELLING 



the Alpine rope, and Mawson again straightened him- 

 self up on it, resting his whole weight on that rope. 

 Thus little by little he was hoisted up to the under 

 surface of the snow lid, but as his harness rope had cut 

 back a narrow groove in this snow lid several feet from 

 where the snow gave away under him Mawson now found 

 his head and shoulders pressing against the under side 

 of the snow lid, and had some difficulty in breaking 

 through this in order to get his head out. At last 

 the top of his head emerged, a sight for which Mackay 

 and I were truly thankful, and presently he was able 

 to get his arms up, and soon his body followed, and he 

 got safely out on the near side of the crevasse. After 

 this episode we were extra cautious in crossing the 

 crevasses, but the ice was simply seamed with them. 

 Twice when our sledge was being dragged up ice-pres- 

 sure ridges it rolled over sideways with one runner in a 

 crevasse, and once the whole sledge all but disappeared 

 into a crevasse, the snow lid of which had partly collapsed 

 under its weight. Had it gone down completely it 

 would certainly have dragged the three of us down with 

 it, as it weighed nearly one-third of a ton. It was clear 

 that these high-pressure ridges and numerous crevasses 

 were caused now, not by the Drygalski, but by the 

 Nansen Glacier. 



It was now somewhat foggy, but occasionally the 

 fog and mist lifted, and in the distance one caught 

 glimpses of magnificent cliffs of reddish brown granite, 

 with wisps and wreathes of white mist hanging around the 

 summits. The view reminded me of the Grampians in 

 Scotland near Ossian's Cave at the Pass of Glencoe. 

 Later on in the day we saw in the dim light that we had 

 before us a long steep descent into an ice valley, which 

 appeared to be heavily crevassed at the bottom. As 

 we were uncertain whether we could get across it at 



157 



