Page:Scott's Last Expedition, Volume 2.djvu/67

ago. Then we hoped to get in under the actual rock cliffs which had always been the best way down to the rookery in the Discovery days. But somehow we got down by a slope which led us into a valley between the first two pressure ridges, and we found it impossible to get back in under the land ice cliffs. Nor had we then seen any other way down from the land ice except by the slope we followed. The rest was apparently all ice cliff about 80 to 100 ft. high. We tried again and again to work our way in to the left where the land ice cliffs joined the rock cliffs, but though we made considerable headway now and then along snow slopes and drift ridges by crossing the least tumbled parts of the intervening pressure lines, we yet came time after time to impossible places [with too great a drop], and had to turn back and try another way. [Bill led on a length of Alpine rope on the toggle of the sledge, Birdie was in his harness on the toggle, and I was in my harness on the rear of the sledge. Two or three times we tried to get down the ice slopes to the comparatively level road under the cliff, but it was always too great a drop. In that dim light every proportion was distorted, and some of the places we actually did manage to negotiate with ice axes and Alpine rope looked absolute precipices, and there were always crevasses at the bottom if you slipped. This day I went into various crevasses at least six times, once when we were close to the sea going right in to my waist, rolling out and then down a steep slope until brought up by Birdie and Bill on the rope.] We tried one possible opening after