ACROSS SOUTH GEORGIA 
What shall it be ? " They both replied at once, " Try the 
slope." So we started away again downwards. We abandoned 
the Prmms lamp, now empty, at the breakfast camp and 
carried with us one ration and a biscuit each. The deepest 
snow we had yet encountered clogged our feet, but we plodded 
downward, and after descending about 500 ft., reducing our 
altitude to 2000 ft. above sea-level, we thought we saw the 
way clear ahead. A steep gradient of blue ice was the next 
obstacle. Worsley and Crean got a firm footing in a hole 
excavated with the adze and then lowered me as I cut steps 
until the full 50 ft. of om- alpine rope was out. Then I made a 
hole big enough for the three of us, and the other two men 
came down the steps. My end of the rope was anchored to 
the adze and I had settled myself in the hole braced for a 
strain in case they slipped. When we all stood hi the second 
hole I went down again to make more steps, and in this laborious 
fashion we spent two hours descending about 500 ft. Half- 
Avay down we had to strike away diagonally to the left, for we 
noticed that the fragments of ice loosened by the adze were 
taking a leap into space at the bottom of the slope. Eventually 
we got off the steep ice, very gratefully, at a pomt where some 
rocks protruded, and we could see then that there was a perilous 
precipice directly below the point where we had started to 
cut steps. A slide down a sUppery slope, with the adze and our 
cooker gomg ahead, completed this descent, and incidentally 
did considerable damage to our much-tried trousers. 
When we picked ourselves up at the bottom we were not 
more than 1500 ft. above the sea. The slope was compara- 
tively easy. Water was running beneath the snow, making 
" pockets " between the rocks that protruded above the white 
surface. The shells of snow over these pockets were traps for 
our feet; but we scrambled down, and presently came to 
patches of tussock. A few minutes later we reached the sandy 
beach. The tracks of some animals were to be seen, and we 
were puzzled until I remembered that reindeer, brought from 
Norway, had been placed on the island and now ranged along 
the lower land of the eastern coast. We did not pause to 
investigate. Our minds were set upon reaching the haunts of 
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