S i6 
SCOTT'S LAST EXPEDITION 
[December 
The comfort is that we arc rising. On one slope we got a 
good view of the land and the pressure ridges to the S.E. 
They seem to be disposed 6 en echelon ' and gave me the 
idea of shearing cracks. They seemed to lessen as we 
ascend. It is rather trying having to march so far to the 
west, but if we keep rising we must come to the end 
of the obstacles some time. 
Saturday night. — Camp 45. T. -3 0 . Bar. 21*61. ? Rise. 
Height about 7750. Great vicissitudes of fortune in the 
afternoon march. Started west up a slope — about the 
fifth we have mounted in the last two days. On top, 
another pressure appeared on the left, but less lofty and 
more snow-covered than that which had troubled us in 
the morning. There was temptation to try it, and I had 
been gradually turning in its direction. But I stuck 
to my principle and turned west up yet another slope. 
On top of this we got on the most extraordinary surface — 
narrow crevasses ran in all directions. They were quite 
invisible, being covered with a thin crust of hardened 
neve without a sign of a crack in it. We all fell in one 
after another and sometimes two together. We have 
had many unexpected falls before, but usually through 
being unable to mark the run of the surface appearances 
of cracks, or where such cracks are covered with soft snow. 
How a hardened crust can form over a crack is a real 
puzzle — it seems to argue extremely slow movement. 
Dead reckoning, 85 0 22V S., 159 0 31' E. 
In the broader crevasses this morning we noticed 
that it was the lower edge of the bridge which was rotten, 
whereas in all in the glacier the upper edge was open. 
