Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/265

Nordenskiöld, causing this part of the sea to freeze over late in the season.

A cold evening with slight snow. Approximate distance 6 miles.

October 19.—A fine morning but colder. We turned out at 3.30, and after breakfast Levick, Abbott, and Browning went to the seal hole while we packed and started the sledges. They were successful this time and caught the seal asleep by the hole, and soon had him cut up and packed on one of the sledges. At 10 we stopped for lunch. The day was lovely for marching, being clear and cold, but the surface was vile; no pressure, but soft sandy snow. We halted for a second lunch of raw seal at 3.30 p.m. Levick, Abbott, and Browning like it, the rest of us do not. We camped at 6.15, all very tired. Distance 9 miles. A lovely evening.

October 20.—A lovely morning, clear, calm, and cold. A stiff pull over a heavy surface brought us to the foot of the cliff of the Nordenskiöld ice tongue. The cliff here is about 50 feet high and very much indented. A few miles to the east a deep bay or inlet ran in to the southward.

A steep snowdrift enabled us to get on the ice tongue, but we had to unpack the sledges and carry most of the gear up, after hauling the sledges up to the top with the Alpine rope, as it was so steep.

We camped on the top at about 5 p.m. Priestley, Levick, and I then roped up and went on to see what the going was like for the next day.

We found long shallow undulations, and as far as we could see no crevasses. We shall cross it a long way