even and half miles.

On the 11th we rose at 5 A.M., and at 7 A.M. we were on the march. For
the two hours after starting, the surface was tolerable and then changed
for the worse; the remainder of the day's work being principally over
a hard crust, which was just too brittle to bear the weight of a man,
letting him through to a soft substratum, six or eight inches deep
in the snow. Only those who have travelled in country like this can
properly realize how wearisome it is.

At 9 A.M. the course was altered to south, as there appeared to be a
fairly good track up the hills. The surface of the glacier rose and
fell in long undulations which became wider and more marked as the land
approached. By the time we camped, they were three-quarters of a mile
from crest to crest, with a drop of thirty feet from crest to trough.
Despite the heavy trudging we covered more than thirteen miles.

I made the marching hours 7 A.M. to 5 P.M., so that there was time to
get the evening meal before darkness set in; soon after 6 P.M.

The march commenced about seven o'clock on March 15, the thermometer
registering -8 degrees F., while a light southerly breeze made it feel
much colder. The exercise soon warmed us up and, when the breeze died
away, the remainder of the day was perfectly calm.

A surface of "pie-crust" cut down the mileage in the forenoon. At 11
A.M. we encountered many crevasses, from two to five feet wide, with
clean-cut sides and shaky bridges. Hoadley went down to his head in one,
and we all got our legs in others.

It became evident after lunch that the land was nearing rapidly, its
lower slopes obscuring the higher land behind. The crevasses also became
wider, so I lengthened the harness with an alpine rope to allow more
room and to prevent more than two men from being over a chasm at the
same time. At 4 P.M. we were confronted with one sixty feet wide.
Crevasses over thirty feet in width usually have very solid bridges
and may be considered safe, but this one had badly broken edges and one
hundred yards on the right the lid had collapsed. So instead of marching
steadily across, we went over singly on the alpine rope and hauled the
sledges along in their turn, when all had crossed in safety. Immediately
after passing this obstacle the grade became steeper, and, between three
and five o'clock, we rose two hundred feet, traversing several large
patches of neve.

That night the tent stood on a field of snow covering th