Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/191

At the first possible place my party left the glacier, and, after about an hour's climb, came out on a snow field, where we roped up and ploughed through deep snow lying over ice, along the foot of a steep slope, which we attempted to climb by cutting steps in order to reach a rocky spur several hundred feet above us. Half-way up, however, we had to retrace our steps, the snow being inclined to avalanche, and continue our way along the foot of the slope for about an hour, when we were able to get on another rocky spur and climb.

Some of the granite boulders were hollowed out in a wonderful way by the action of sand-carrying wind. We crawled right inside some, and found room for five or six men.

The view from where we were was very fine in every direction but N.W., where a higher ridge bounded our horizon. Looking down on the Mt. Melbourne neck we had first proposed crossing, I saw, to my surprise, that the flat ice on top of the neck was heavily crevassed.

We got back to camp about 6.30, and found the others had not yet arrived. They turned up a little before 9, all very tired. Priestley reported very heavy going, soft snow up to their thighs, which completely hid the crevasses, and they dropped down a good many.

They reached a height of 3680 feet above the camp, but could not see whether the glacier would form a good route over into Wood Bay.

As far as they went it would be possible to get sledges, but progress would be very slow indeed, so considering our limited time we decided to work along more to the