THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



Mackay's and my eyes were affected a good deal by snow- 

 blindness and were painful. We found as we advanced 

 that at about six miles easterly from our lunch camp, 

 the surface of the Mount Larsen Glacier descended at 

 a very steep angle. Somewhat ahead to the right it 

 was clear that, where it junctioned with the Drygalski 

 Glacier, it was seamed by enormous crevasses and 

 traversed by strong pressure ridges. We held on with 

 our sledge on a course which took us close to the north 

 side of the glacier. At last the descent became so steep 

 that it was with the utmost difficulty that we could 

 hold the sledge back and prevent its charging down 

 the slope. We halted here and Mackay went ahead to 

 reconnoitre. Presently he came back and said that 

 the narrow strip of snow covering the glacier ice, near 

 its contact with the rocky chffs on our left, was con- 

 tinuous right down to the bottom of the slope, and he 

 thought it was practicable, if we made rope brakes for 

 the runners on our sledge, to lower it down this steep 

 slope in safety. He fixed on some brakes of brown 

 tarred rope by just twisting the rope spirally around 

 the sledge runners. We then cautiously started the 

 sledge down the steepest bit of the slope, all of us ready 

 to let go in case the sledge took charge. The rope 

 brake worked wonders, and it was even necessary to 

 put a slight pull on the sledge in places in order to get 

 it down the steep snow surface. We had left the great 

 crevasses and ice falls near the junction of the Mount 

 Larsen and Drygalski Glaciers a little to our right. 



We now found ourselves on an ice-surface quite 

 unlike anything which we had hitherto experienced. 

 In the foreground were some small frozen lakes close to 

 the foot of the granite hills; on the far side of the lakes 

 were beautiful glacial moraines. All around the lakes, 

 and for a considerable distance up the ice slopes de- 



