I9I2] 
A NARROW ESCAPE 
i6i 
with her tail and wriggled off as fast as she could across the 
ice, but the practical joker did not follow up the attack. 
Beyond a stiff pull in deep snow we had no difficulty 
in getting our sledges up the snow drift and on the south 
cliff. Once on top we were troubled with a rather deep 
crusted snow surface, with long undulations which were 
fairly hard and good going on the summits, but with deep 
soft snow in the valleys. Curious conical mounds of 
blue ice showed up here and there. These arc survivals, 
I imagine, of the seracs and icefalls visible on our right 
hand where the David Glacier flows down from the 
mountains, making a big disturbance. To avoid these 
we had to steer in a south-easterly direction. The day 
was fine but cold and we were all in good spirits, as 
even if we could not get down to Cape Evans by the 
sea ice, wc could make certain of getting plenty of food 
here. Distance about 6 miles. 
October 8. — Bright sun but cold westerly wind with 
low drift when wc turned out at 5.30. We were away by 
8 and the going was much the same as yesterday, only 
the ice hummocks were more numerous and the undula- 
tions steeper. In the afternoon the sun went behind 
nimbus haze and the light got very bad indeed, and was 
the cause of us nearly coming to grief. The snow was 
very wind-blown and slippery on the top of the undula- 
tions, but soft in the hollows, and we had been racing 
down the slopes to help us through the soft snow. Soon 
after 4 the light got so bad we could not see where we 
were stepping, and when well on our way down one of 
these slopes, I thought I saw a crevasse in front, so swung 
VOL. Ill M 
