20 
THE STRAND MAGAZINE . 
move it. By this time Wilson and Cherry- 
Garrard, who had seen the accident, had come 
to our assistance. At first tilings looked very 
bad for our poor team, and I saw little prospect 
of rescuing them. 1 had luckily inquired 
about the Alpine rope before starting the 
march, and now Cherrv-Garrard hurriedly 
brought this most essential aid. It takes 
one a little time to make plans in such 
sudden circumstances, and for some minutes 
our efforts were rather futile. We could get 
not one inch on the main trace of the sledge 
or on the leading rope, which was binding 
Osman to the snow with a throttling pressure. 
“ Then thoughts became clearer. We 
unlashed our sledge, putting in safety our 
sleeping-bags with the tent and cooker. 
Choking sounds from Osman made it clear 
that the pressure on him must soon be 
released. I seized the lashing off Meares’s 
sleeping-bag, passed the tent-poles across the 
crevasse, and with Meares managed to get a 
few inches on the leading line. This freed 
Osman, whose harness was immediately cut. 
“ Then, securing the Alpine rope to the 
main trace, we tried to haul up together. 
One dog came up and was unlashed, but by 
this time the rope had cut so far back at the 
edge that it was useless to attempt to get more 
of it. But we could now unbend the sledge 
and do that for which we should have aimed 
from the first — namely, run the sledge across 
the gap and work from it. We managed to 
do this, our fingers constantly numbed. 
Wilson held on to the anchored trace whilst 
the rest of us laboured at the leader end. 
The leading rope was very small and I was 
fearful of its breaking, so Meares was lowered 
down a foot or two to secure the Alpine rope 
to the leading end of the trace. This done, 
the work of rescue proceeded in better order. 
Two by two we hauled the animals up to the 
sledge and one by one cut them out of their 
harness. Strangely, the last dogs were the 
most difficult, as they were close under the 
gap, bound in by the snow-covered rope. 
“ Finally, with a gasp, we got the last poor 
creature on to firm snow. We had recovered 
eleven of the thirteen. Then I wondered if 
the last two could not be got, and we paid down 
the Alpine rope to see if it was long enough 
to reach the snow-bridge on which they were 
coiled. The rope is ninety feet, and the 
amount remaining showed that the depth of 
the bridge was about sixty-five feet. I made 
a bowline and the others lowered me down. 
