58 British Antarctic Expedition. 
air. You arrive at the bottom of the cask, which 
moves on hinges, which you have to lift up. This 
bottom acts both as a floor and as a trap-door. You 
lift it up with your head, catch hold of a frozen 
icy rope with a knot in the end made fast to the 
upper end of the crow’s nest ; by dint of pulling and 
shoving you squeeze yourself and your fur through 
the narrow passage, shut the door under you, which 
then forms the floor, and like a minor god you look 
down upon the miserable little world below. How- 
ever, it is from the crow’s nest that you get a proper 
view of Antarctic scenery. You see the ice as it 
closes and opens far out towards the horizon, where 
the sky and ice seem to meet, while here and there 
icebergs are floating about in halos of the most 
dazzling pink and crimson. You have the delight- 
ful feeling of all depending upon your correct 
judgment for the 
safety of the 
vessel, and . for 
progress among 
the grinding ice- 
bergs. At places 
the channels be- 
tween the ice- 
floes are blocked 
by broad or nar- 
row isthmuses of 
SLACK ICE IN THE PACK. 
: sel is not able 
to work her way ; then you back her with the engines 
into the open space behind where you have already 
cleared your road, then by telegraph from the 
ісе, and the ves- · 
