Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/257

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 are survivals, I imagine, of the séracs 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, we 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 we 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 undulations 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 undulations, 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