THE HEART OF THE ANTARCTIC 



restored the circulation in my toe, and put on some socks 

 less icy than those I had just taken off. 



We were much refreshed by our supper, and then 

 started off again, thinking that at last we should reach 

 our depot, or at all events, the small inlet a little over 

 a mile distant from it, but " the best laid schemes of 

 mice and men gang aft agley." There was an ominous 

 white streak ahead of us with a dark streak just behind 

 it, and we soon saw that this was due to a ravine or 

 barranca in the snow- and ice-surface interposing itself 

 between ourselves and our depot. We soon reached the 

 near cliff of the barranca. 



The barranca was about two hundred yards in 

 width, and from thirty to forty feet deep. It was 

 bounded by a vertical cliff or very steeply inclined slope 

 on the near side, the north-west side, and by an over- 

 hanging cliff festooned with stalactites on the south- 

 east side. To the north-east a strip of dark sea-water 

 was visible between the walls of the barranca, which 

 evidently communicated by a long narrow channel with 

 the ocean outside, some three miles distant. Inland, 

 the barranca extended for many miles as far as the 

 eye could reach. The bottom of the barranca imme- 

 diately beneath us was floored with sea ice covered 

 with a few inches of snow. This ice was traversed 

 by large tide-cracks, and we were much excited to see 

 that there were a number of seals and Emperor 

 penguins dotted over the ice floor. We determined 

 to try and cross the barranca. We looked up and 

 down the near cliff for a practicable spot where we 

 could let down our sledge, and soon found a suitable 

 slope, a little to the north-east of us, formed by a steep 

 snow drift. We sledged on to this spot, and making 

 fast the Alpine rope to the bow of the sledge, lowered 

 it cautiously, stern first, to the bottom. The oil-cans 



202 



