PRESSURE RIDGES 



newly fallen snow covering everything around us, and 

 it was still snowing while we were having breakfast. 

 After breakfast the snow nearly ceased, and we took 

 half the load off our sledge and started with the 

 remainder to try and work a passage out of the ice-pres- 

 sure ridges of the combined Drygalski and Larsen Glaciers 

 on to the smoother sea ice, and eventually on to the 

 Drygalski Ice Barrier. While Mawson and Mackay 

 pulled, I steadied the sledge on the lower side in round- 

 ing the steep sidelings. We were still sledging over the 

 leafy or tile ice, which mostly crunched underfoot with 

 a sharp tinkling sound. We skirted the lateral moraine 

 for a distance of over half a mile, following a depression 

 in the ice-surface apparently produced by a stream, the 

 outlet of the waters of the small lakes. At one spot 

 Mawson crashed right through into the water beneath, 

 and got wet up to his thighs. In spite of my efforts to 

 keep it on even keel, the sledge frequently capsized on 

 these steep sidelings. At last, after struggling up and 

 down heavy slopes, and over low-lying areas of rotten 

 ice, which every here and there let us through into the 

 water beneath, we arrived at the foot of an immense 

 ice-pressure ridge. It was a romantic-looking spot, 

 though at the time we did not exactty appreciate its 

 beauties. To our left was a huge cliff of massive granite 

 rising up steeply to heights of about 2000 ft. The com- 

 bined pressure of the Drygalski and Mount Larsen 

 Glaciers had forced the glacier ice up into great ridges, 

 trending somewhat obliquely to the coast cliff. 



We went back to the tent where we got some hot 

 tea, of which Mawson, particularly, was very glad, as 

 he was somewhat cooled down as the result of his 

 wetting. Then we packed up the remainder of our 

 belongings on the sledge and dragged it down to where 

 we had dumped the half load on the near side of the pres- 



19Y 



