ere the bridges over large crevasses had
fallen in. Mertz prepared the lunch and Ninnis and I went to photograph
an open crevasse near by. Returning, we diverged on reaching the back
of the tent, he passing round on one side and I on the other. The next
instant I heard a bang on the ice and, swinging round, could see nothing
of my companion but his head and arms. He had broken through the lid
of a crevasse fifteen feet wide and was hanging on to its edge close
to where the camera lay damaged on the ice. He was soon dragged into
safety. Looking down into the black depths we realized how narrowly
he had escaped. As the tent was found to encroach partly on the same
crevasse, it may be imagined that we did not dally long over the meal.

In the afternoon the weather became clear and fine, but, as if to offset
this, the broken surface became impassable. The region was one of serac
where the glacier was puckered up, folded and crushed. After several
repulses in what seemed to be promising directions, we were finally
forced to camp, having ten miles to our credit.

Whilst Mertz fed the dogs and prepared hoosh, Ninnis and I roped up and
went off to search for a passage.

All around, the glacier was pressed up into great folds, two hundred
feet in height and between one quarter and a third of a mile from crest
to crest. The ridges of the folds were either domes or open rifts
partly choked with snow. Precipitous ice-falls and deep cauldrons were
encountered everywhere. To the north the glacier flattened out; to the
south it was more rugged.

In this chaos we wandered for some miles until a favourable line of
advance had been discovered for the march on the following day.

The first three miles, on the 22nd, were over a piece of very dangerous
country, after which our prospects improved and we came to the border of
a level plain.

There Mertz slipped on his skis, went ahead and set a good pace.
Although the sky had become overcast and snow fell fitfully, our
progress was rapid towards the rising slopes of the land on the eastern
side of the glacier. Over the last three miles of the day's journey the
surface was raised in large, pimply masses surrounded by wide fissures.
Into one of the fissures, bridged by snow, Ninnis's sledge fell, but
fortunately jammed itself just below the surface. As it was, we had
a long job getting it up again, having to unpack the sledge in the
crevasse until it was light enough to be easily manipula