ry as
polished marble, with much the same translucent appearance. Practically
all the country, however, was a jumbled mass of small, hard sastrugi,
averaging perhaps a foot in height, with an occasional gnarled old
veteran twice as high. To either side the snow rolled away for miles.
In front, we made our first acquaintance with the accursed next ridge,
which is always ahead of you on the plateau. Generally we passed from
one ridge to another so gradually that we could never say for certain
just when we had topped one; still the next ridge was always there.

The weather had lately been colder with the increased altitude. The
temperature in daily range varied from -10 degrees F. to 9 degrees F.
It was so hot in the sun, on the 18th, that lunching inside the tent was
unbearable. We preferred its shadow outside in the breeze.

Wearing a minimum of clothes, we marched along gaily during the
afternoon. The country changed in a wonderful manner, the sastrugi
gradually becoming smaller and finally disappearing. The surface was so
soft that a bamboo would easily penetrate it for a foot. Evidently it
was fairly old and laid down in calm weather, for excavations showed
that it became more compact without any hard wind-swept layers marking
successive snowfalls.

It was proved that we were commencing a descent of one thousand five
hundred feet down the north side of a valley feeding the Mertz Glacier.
In order to explain the surface, smooth and unruffled by any wind, the
question arose as to whether it is possible that there is a cushion
of dead air more or less permanently over the north side of this
depression.

On the soft surface we were able to dispense with crampons. Hitherto, it
had been impossible to haul over a slippery surface in finnesko. Now we
felt as light as air and were vastly cheered when some one calculated
that the six of us were saving I don't know how many thousand
foot-pounds of work every mile. With a run of twelve miles we were
forty-two miles from Winter Quarters.

Another splendid day on the 19th. We had lunch in a curious cup-shaped
hollow, estimated to be two miles wide and one hundred and fifty feet
deep. Webb obtained here an approximate dip of 88 degrees 44',** a very
promising increase from the Hut (87 degrees 27').

** At the South Magnetic Pole the dip is 90 degrees.

[TEXT ILLUSTRATION]

Map showing track of the southern sledging party from the Main Base

Snow-blindness had now